Is This Home Yet
by fishstic
Summary: In a world where sexual violence runs amok and gays are beaten on the street, two young lovers face the struggles of their daily lives, but it's about to get a lot harder. Together with their ragtag band of friends, Anna and Elsa are on the verge of uncovering Arendelle's dark underbelly and the secrets it holds in unexpected places. There are mentions of rape, and homophobia.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: Hi, Just as warning if you are sensitive to mentions of rape please don't read this. This is my first story for the _Frozen _fandom, that I am uploading here. I would love critiques and comments. Thanks. **

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She had been running for only about fifteen minutes when she saw the crowd gathered ahead. I can hide there and they won't find me. She tried to duck into the crowd, but was grabbed up by a burly security guard instead.

"Lemme go," she cried.

"No one is allowed without a ticket or press pass," the security guard said.

"Let me go," she cried.

She struggled in the guard's arms not wanting the men who were chasing her to catch up. When she glanced down the street, she noticed the men closing fast and started crying and struggling more. "Please, please, please let me go."

The men stopped in front of the security guard. One of them stepped up and, with a heavy Italian accent, said, "I apologize for our sister dear. She is a bit not right in the head and sometimes she does not act her age. If you will give her back to us, we promise she will cause you no more trouble."

"Please don't," she whimpered still struggling.

"Sister, please calm down," the man with the accent said. "I know you don't like going to the doctor but you have to."

The security guard was less than convinced that if he let the girl down she would go willingly with the men claiming to be her older brothers. But when he went to hand her over to them, she started actually screaming and he held tight to her. She was kicking and screaming. The guard was having trouble holding her but he wasn't about to let her go. He knew if he let go she would run straight into the crowd and cause a scene that would ruin the governor's speech.

Meanwhile on stage, the governor was talking politely about how the proposed new law was to put it in layman's terms the stupidest thing ever. When she heard the screaming however, she cleared her throat. "Excuse me for a second gentle people." She walked off the stage and over to the security guard. "What is going on here?"

"This kid won't stop screaming."

"Please forgive our sister, Madame Governor," the man with the accent said.

The girl looked at the governor and finally kicking herself free of the security guard's hands ran over to her. She looked up at the governor and said softly. "They aren't my brothers."

The governor looked at the kid and then looked at the men. She narrowed her eyes and said firmly, "I don't believe for a minute that she is actually your sister. Get lost before I call the police."

The men glared at the little kid and the man with the accent said, "This isn't over brat," and they left.

"Come with me," the governor said and brought the girl up on stage with her. "What's your name?"

"Anna."

"Okay, Anna," the governor said with a smile. "I suppose you know my name?"

"Sharon Smith."

The governor smiled. "Anna please stand with me as I give my speech."

"Okay."

Anna stood by the governor's side as she continued her speech.

"The proposed law is, to put it bluntly, stupid. The law proposes to make abortion legal, something I support, but with the included clause that forcing sex on a woman is no longer illegal. That is stupid. The people who are for this claim that it is the woman's fault for it happening, by saying things like, 'Well if she hadn't been wearing that,' or 'if she hadn't been drinking,' claiming that women are asking for it based on the clothes they wear."

Anna was shocked and interrupted the governor's speech. "Do people really think that?"

"Yes, some do."

Anna walked forward on the stage. "Do you think that?" she asked looking out over the crowd. "What about me? Wearing what I am wearing now. Was I asking for it?"


	2. Chapter 2

The governor looked at Anna in stunned silence. Not a soul in the crowd made a sound. Anna stared out over the crowd to nothing in particular and said again, "Was I asking for it? Wearing what I am now."

The crowd was silent. No one wanted to be the one to speak up on this matter.

"I'm waiting."

"You must have led him on somehow," someone in the crowd yelled.

"Led him on? How. Let me tell you what he said to me. I asked him 'why me?' and he said, 'You threaten us.'

"I was shocked by this statement of his. 'Threaten you how?' I asked. 'I am a fifteen year old girl. I'm not even five feet tall and I weigh about one hundred pounds. The smallest of you men is about five and a half feet tall and weighs at least two hundred fifty pounds. How am I a threat to you?'

"His response was, 'We saw you kiss that other girl. That threatens us. There is already not enough women in the world for all the men that want them. If the women keep choosing other women over men then soon there will be no women at all for the men that want them.'

"'I don't understand. I am a fifteen year old girl. I'm not even a woman that you should be wanting,' I told them.

"'You don't have to understand. You are already ours. You will continue to be ours until you stop being a threat to us.'

"Tell me again how I was asking for it. How I led them on. I was walking to school."

The voice in the crowd yelled out, "You were asking for it because you are gay. Being gay is unnatural and a sin."

"Unnatural? A sin? It's a sin to love someone? Why?"

"Gay people ruin the sanctity of marriage."

"I don't want to get married," Anna countered. "I just want to be happy."

"How can you possibly be happy in a relationship if you don't get married?"

"I am a fifteen year old girl. I can't get married."

"Irrelevant."

Anna bit back a retort she used in school once, _"You're irrelevant to me," _because she didn't want to stoop to that level yet. "How? How is that irrelevant? And besides, even if I had wanted sex, legally I can't consent to it. I'm only fifteen. I'm not about to consent to it either. I'm not ready." She sighed then added softly, "I was never ready."

Sharon walked up from behind the podium and placed a hand on Anna's shoulder. "Listen," she said. "Stop thinking only of what you want and listen to me for a minute. I want to believe that you weren't paying attention to what she has to say. This girl is no different than you or I in the fact that she just wants to live her life without getting hurt."

"Who cares? Life is nothing but people hurting you."

"You are missing the point. She just wants to live life and be happy. That's all anyone really wants. But how is she ever going to be happy if people like you keep telling her that she is wrong to be happy, simply because of who makes her happy? Think of it like this, would you respond this way if she was your sister or daughter?"

"She kissed a girl, she is no family of mine."

"Her kissing a girl is irrelevant to this discussion. If your little sister or daughter had confessed to you that someone had forced her to have sex with them would you still say she was asking for it or leading them on?"

"Well," the person said then stopped speaking.

"Would you or wouldn't you? It's a simple question."

"No."

"Then why does it make sense to say that someone else's daughter, someone else's little sister, was asking for it?"

"Because she's gay."

"Why does that change that she is just a girl? Just someone's daughter who was walking to school?"

"Because…I-it just does."

"It shouldn't. She is just a human girl. She doesn't deserve to be hurt. No one does."


	3. Chapter 3

Sharon knelt down beside Anna and gently turned Anna away from facing the crowd. "Anna, sweetheart, ignore the people who are being stupid about this and answer me a question, please."

"Okay."

"When did this happen?"

Anna looked at her for a minute then sighed and said, "When did it start or when did it end?"

"I'm not going to like the answer either way, so let's go with both."

"I had only managed to get away from them this time about fifteen minutes before your security guard grabbed me. They grabbed me off the street this morning around seven fifty. I was running late, so I took a way to school that I normally don't anymore."

"Anymore?"

"This, umm…wasn't the first time."

The people in the crowd has still been listening to what was going on on the stage, and some of them heard that.

"Wasn't the first time?" Sharon sighed and shook her head a little. "Anna are you hurt?"

"Yes, but I can't go to the hospital. Please don't make me go to the hospital."

"Is there anything I can do to help you? Anyone I can call to help you? Anyone you want, like maybe your mom and dad or sister or brother?"

"I want Elsa."

"Who's Elsa?"

"She's my girl…my best friend."

"Do you know her phone number?"

"No. I don't have a phone, and I can't generally remember things like that."

Sharon sighed then remembering that this speech was televised stood up. "What's her last name?"

"Arendelle. Just like the town."

Sharon walked over to the podium. "If you are here or watching us at home, Elsa Arendelle, your best friend really needs you right now. Please don't be afraid to come to her aid."

In the middle of the mass of people, a blonde haired reporter from _The Snow Flake Messages _the school newspaper of Sofia Potts High School had been listening to the events unfolding on stage and in the audience with rapt attention, but not seeing them unfold because of the people around her being taller than her. She didn't realize who was on the stage and speaking until the governor said her name. She stood up then and pushed her way through the people, stuffing her notebook, and camera, which had seen no use, into her bag as she went. When she reached the front of the mass she stopped dead.

She had hoped she heard wrong. But when she saw her little red head "best friend" on stage with the governor, her clothes looking like they fought a losing battle with a pissed off kitty cat with a lawnmower, she almost started crying. She walked quickly up to, and pulled herself onto the stage and wrapped Anna up in her arms. "Anna," she whispered.

Anna hugged Elsa back, tears starting to stream down her face. She had been holding the tears back since she had gotten away from the men, and that was about forty minutes ago.

"Anna," Elsa kept whispering and holding her.

Anna squeezed herself closer to Elsa and cried.

"Anna," Elsa whispered one last time then asked a question of the crying girl in her arms. "How many times has this happened?"

Anna looked up at Elsa and sighed still crying. "Today makes eight."

Sharon looked over at them, she had almost started her speech again with a different way of approaching the topic when she heard that.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Anna stared at Elsa for a minute. Tears still falling from her eyes and said, "I was afraid."

"Did you tell anyone at all?"

"Yes, the first time and that's why I was scared."

Elsa looked at Anna with her head tilted a little, confused as to what she meant. "I don't understand."

"I went to the police the first time and they didn't even listen to me. They said, 'this is why you shouldn't take short cuts down dark alleys and should never be alone,' and made me leave the station."

"Did you tell your parents?"

"I told my dad what happened and he told my mom and they disowned me for kissing you. They didn't even care what the men did to me, as far as they were concerned I didn't exist anymore. I haven't been back in their house in six months."


	4. Chapter 4

Sharon was shocked when she hear what Anna said. She turned back to the audience of her speech and said, "This is what society's hatred and mistrust has led to. I know this speech wasn't supposed to be about things like this. But seriously. Look at her. This is a fifteen year old girl that most of society has turned its back on. There is no law protecting people in cases like this. None. As it stands, the laws in this state allow child protective services to deny protection to this girl simply because she is not straight. This would make our ancestors cringe. Children are the life blood of society. The clause in the new abortion law that makes forced sex legal, is a clause that says it's okay to hurt children. I, for one, think it's stupid that it's okay for parents to toss their kids out on the street simply because of who they like and even stupider that society makes it okay for men to hurt innocent women and children just because they are stronger than the women and children."

Anna leaned against Elsa crying softly. She didn't like this at all. She was perfectly fine just being a little kid on the street. People gave her food, but now that people know she was gay, she was sure they wouldn't help her anymore. What was worse, now they knew Elsa was gay too. Elsa's life was gonna be harder now, and it was all her fault.

Elsa held Anna close to her. "Anna, it's going to be okay. Everything is going to be fine. I've got you now."

Anna shook her head and pulled away from Elsa a little. "It's not going to be okay. Nothing is going to be okay. I'm gonna get kicked out of school."

"Why would you say that?"

"Because the principal doesn't like me as it is. Now he has more reason to hate me, plus I have no parents or legal guardian to sign any papers."

"That can be fixed."

"No it can't. Plus I ruined your life."

"How?"

"Now everybody knows you like girls."

"I don't care. I don't care what people think of me. Half the school already hates me for making a perfect score on all my exams. Half the town hates me because I'm pretty but I punch boys who try to date me."

"Don't punch boys Elsa," Anna said with a slight chuckle though she was still crying, "their ego can't take it."

Elsa chuckled. "I'm glad to see you still have a sense of humor. Anna, please trust me. Whether people know that I am who I am, or not, I will be here for you. I will always be here and as long as I am here, everything will be fine."

Anna buried her head in Elsa's shoulders again and cried.

Sharon watched them with hope in her eyes. Suddenly she looked back over the crowd and said, "Tell me how that isn't natural. Ignoring their genders, look me in the eye and tell me it isn't natural for someone to love someone else so much that they are willing to put their own self in danger to protect them."

"But the bible says—"

"The bible says nothing about this. Literally nothing."

"It's unnatural."

"Let me ask you this then. Would you die to protect your best friend?"

"Yes."

"Then how is it unnatural for her to say the same thing?"

"uhhh—"

"Exactly. You have no answer, now can we get on with the real matter at hand here. With the way the abortion bill is set up, the state passing this bill would be it taking one step forward and twenty steps back. Do you want our state to be known for legalizing rape?"

"No," the majority of the crowd yelled.

"Do you want our state to be known for taking twenty steps back?"

"No." The word resounded through the crowd and Sharon suppressed a smile.

"Then please vote with me AGAINST this bill, no matter how much you feel abortion should or shouldn't be legal. Let's let the law makers know none of us are standing for this lame attempt to give men even more power over women."


	5. Chapter 5

The people slowly started leaving after the governor's speech was over, until just a handful of reporters were left. A handful of reporters and one very concerned looking brunette woman moving closer to the stage.

Sharon spoke quickly with her advisors then turned back to Elsa and Anna. Anna was still crying on Elsa's shoulder and Elsa continuously whispered words of encouragement to her. Sharon looked down at what was left and noticed the brunette woman staring at them. She decided the best course of action was to walk off the stage and approach the woman.

"Hello," she said walking up to the brunette.

"Oh hello, governor," the woman said, still staring at Elsa and Anna on the stage.

"I don't believe we've ever been properly introduced. My name is Sharon Smith. What's yours?"

"My name is Adrianna Arendelle, I'm Elsa's mother."

"It's nice to meet you Adrianna."

"I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but this," Adrianna said motioning toward Elsa and Anna on stage, "wasn't set up as part of your speech, was it? It wasn't supposed to happen?"

"No, I would never use children as a ploy to get people on my side."

"I was afraid of that."

"Afraid that it wasn't a ploy to get people on my side?"

"Yes. Anna, refuses every time Elsa offers her a ride to or from school. She refuses every time we offer to let her spend the night with us."

"That's interesting."

"I think she's afraid. Afraid because I used to be best friends with her mom. Afraid because she doesn't know that I've known the nature of her relationship with Elsa since two months before Elsa asked her out. Afraid because she doesn't know how much I love her too."

"Does Elsa know how much you care?"

"I would think so. I don't know for sure though."

"Should we tell them?"

"I want to, but they are having a moment and I don't want to ruin it."

"You won't ruin their moment. I have a feeling that Anna just might be more willing to listen to you now."

Sharon and Adrianna walked up to the stage and stood there for a moment.

Elsa held Anna stroking her hair and smiling slightly. Anna had cried until no more tears would come, now she just stood against Elsa wondering what would happen next.

"Elsa," Adrianna said, just loud enough that Elsa could hear her.

"Mom?" Elsa said questioning whether or not she had even heard anything.

"Yes, Elsa. It's me. Please listen to me. Anna is terrified. I can see that much from where I stand. Please, it's up to you. You are capable of getting through that fear to the girl inside. You need to get her to understand that I don't mean her any harm. I never did. She needs to know that she can trust us. You and me both."

"I'll do my best mom." Elsa stroked Anna's hair some more then gently moved so that she was looking Anna in the eyes. "Anna, please listen to me. I love you. You mean the world to me. More than anything has ever meant before. Please believe me when I tell you that you can trust me."

"I do trust you, Elsa. You're the only person that I still do trust."

"Then trust me when I tell you that my mom only wants to help you. She loves you as though you were her own. Please Anna. Listen to what she has to say."

"Anna," Adrianna said. "I know I could never understand to the fullest extent what you have gone through, but I'm willing to try. I'm willing to help you, if you are ready and willing to be helped. It's okay to be afraid. Really it is. I'm not mad that you didn't tell me about any of this. I'm not mad that you don't accept our offers of help. I'm not mad about any of that. I'm really not. Please believe me. I don't hate you. I don't want to hurt you. I don't even care that you are my daughter's girlfriend, not her boyfriend. I only care that you deserve to be loved, and cared for. I want nothing more than to be the mother you deserve."

Anna listened as Adrianna spoke to her. "But," she said. "How do I know I can trust you?"

"You want me to tell the truth?"

"Yes."

"You don't. You never will. No one ever knows that they can trust someone. Especially if the person doing the trusting has been betrayed by someone they trusted. They can only ever have faith that trusting the person is the right thing to do, even if it isn't. How do you know you can trust Elsa?"

"She's never hurt me. She's always protected me. Always."

"Have I ever hurt you Anna?"

"No. You haven't."

"Then have faith that I won't hurt you now."

"Okay," Anna said. "I'm going to have faith that you won't start hurting me now. Because I know you have no reason to."


	6. Chapter 6

Adrianna walked closer to the stage. Elsa glanced down at her mother and then tapped Anna on the shoulder and motioned toward her.

"Anna," Elsa said. "Come home with me. Please. Let me and my mom be your family now. Your new and loving family."

"But what about the school? They can kick me out if they figure out I'm living with you."

"Actually," Sharon said.

Anna and Elsa both turned to look at her.

"If your parents legally disowned you, then Adrianna becoming your legal guardian is just a matter of some papers being signed and my good word." Sharon smiled. "You got lucky today kid, not every kid catches my attention the way you did. And not everyone gets my good word helping them get accepted by a loving family."

"I don't know if they legally disowned me, but even if they didn't I haven't been in their house in six months, surely there is something that can be done, right?"

"Yes. As long as my being the governor still has some kind of meaning. There is always something that can be done."

Anna looked at Elsa. "I guess I can come home with you."

Elsa smiled. She pulled Anna into a tight hug. "Where's your stuff?"

"My stuff?"

"Where are you staying right now?"

"Well," Anna said. "I sort of sleep in the park."

"All winter?"

"And most of spring."

"It snowed."

"A lot."

"Anna. Is this why you've been sick so much this year?"

"Maybe."

Elsa glanced at her mom and Sharon then looked back at Anna. "Alright, where exactly is the stuff you were taking to school with you?"

"Probably still sitting in the alley where they tossed it."

"Should we go get it?"

"I'm not going back there. Not alone and not with you. I don't want you to get hurt if they are waiting for me."

Sharon looked at the two girls on stage then called over the security guard that had first tried to stop Anna from going into the crowd. "Markias would you be so kind as to go with the two young ladies on stage to get Anna's things, and help them if they run into any trouble?"

"Of course," Markias said.

"You here that Anna, we have a body guard."

Anna glanced at the man. "Okay. I guess we could go get my stuff if he's protecting us. He's strong."

Anna and Elsa walked off the stage and stood beside Markias. They headed off into the city walking carefully, since it was getting dark. Anna led them to the alley where the men had grabbed her. She walked into the alley with Elsa and Markias following closely. The men were nowhere to be seen so she located her book bag quickly and left the alley with Elsa and Markias on her heels.

"What about the rest of your things?"

"The rest?" She thought for a moment. "Oh you mean like clothes and things, well, I have three bags, like duffel bags, and by like I mean they are duffle bags. Anyway I have three hidden under the gazebo in the park, not too far from here. They have my clothes, what I could take anyway and a blanket and a pillow in them. My favorite teddy bear is in this bag though."

"Let's go get them," Elsa said. "You don't mind do you Markias?"

"No," Markias said. "I'll even carry the bags. Sharon wants me to help you two, so I shall help you." He smiled.

Anna led them through the streets of the city. It was getting darker and darker the longer they walked.

"Anna," Elsa said taking her hand. "I thought you said it's not far."

"It's not," Anna said, not realizing Elsa wasn't as used to walking the city as she was. "It's around the corner on the next block"

Elsa followed Anna the rest of the way to the park and the gazebo in the center of the park. She stood by as Anna crawled underneath to get her bags. She noticed a police officer watching them. "Ummm…Anna."

"Yes, Elsa?"

"There's a police officer watching us."

"Is it Tommy?"

"I don't know."

Anna crawled back out with her bags and looked at the police officer. "Tommy," she said and he walked over.

"Have you finally decided on moving out of the park? It's been fun having you around, but both of us would be in serious trouble if the commissioner found out I let a fifteen year old girl convince me to keep it secret that she's living in the park alone," the officer said.

"Actually yes," Anna said. "This is my best friend Elsa, and she's letting me move in with her."

"Elsa, I want to thank you. For taking her in. She needed it." He looked around at the growing darkness. "Should I take you three back where you need to go?"

"That would be nice, officer," Elsa said smiling.

"Alright. Where am I taking you?"

"Central Plaza."

"Isn't that where the Governor had her speech earlier?"

"Yes."

"Alright. Follow me." He motioned for them to follow him. He led them through the park to a police car parked on the adjacent street. He opened the back door and they'll all got in. Anna was cuddle protectively in the middle with Markias on one side, holding two bags, and Elsa on the other, holding one bag. Tommy got in the driver's seat and started the car. "To Central Plaza," he said and they were off.


	7. Chapter 7

Tommy let them out at Central Plaza and wished them luck in their lives. Anna smiled and waved goodbye to him happily. Elsa walked with Anna and Markias to where her mother and the governor stood.

"Mom," Elsa said. "She has her stuff. How long before we can take her home?" Elsa looked at Anna, hoping that the younger girl hadn't decided to bolt before they even tried to take her home.

"A few more minutes Elsa," Adrianna said. "How about you take her and her stuff to the car and wait for me there?"

"Okay mom," Elsa smiled. She led Anna and Markias to her mom's car. She sat the bag she was carrying down next to the car and Markias did the same.

"It's been a pleasure helping you two," Markias said. He walked back to the governor, leaving Elsa and Anna alone by the car.

Elsa looked at Anna, still sure that she was going to try to run away before they could take her home. She wanted to say something but she wasn't quite sure what it was. Instead she just reached out and took Anna's hand. "Please don't be sad, Anna. I love you." She wasn't sure if it would help Anna at all for her to say that. But she really just wanted Anna to at least try to smile.

Anna looked up at her. "Elsa, I love you too."

Elsa smiled. She looked at Anna the younger girl looked so tired. "Anna when we get home, let me take care of putting your stuff away. You deserve a good night's sleep."

Anna looked at her and sighed. "I can't sleep."

"Why not?" Elsa asked her eyes full of concern as she moved a little closer to Anna.

"I just can't," Anna said pulling her hand away from Elsa's. She sat the bags she was carrying down on the ground and sank down to the ground beside them, leaning against the car. "Sleep is bad."

Elsa looked at her not quite sure how to respond. Elsa sat down beside her waiting for her mom to finish talking to the governor. She gently took Anna's hand. "If sleep is bad, then I'll stay awake with you."

"Why? You need sleep."

"Because that's what girlfriends are for. I don't need sleep. I sleep every night. You need sleep. Trust me."

"No. I don't. Sleep is bad. But if you want to stay up with me, that's on you."

Elsa shook her head softly and smiled at her, hoping to maybe ease a little of the pain. She leaned over to her girlfriend and gently took her girlfriend's chin and moved her so that Anna was leaning against her shoulder.

Anna sighed and snuggled her head closer to Elsa. "I'm sorry Elsa."

"Don't be," Elsa said quietly. "Nothing that happened was your fault. Everything is going to be okay. I promise."

"How do you know?" Anna whispered. "How do you know that it'll be okay?"

Elsa sighed and looked up towards the sky. "Because I won't let it not be okay. I know that it's not possible for me to as it would be said by others, 'fix' you. I don't want to change you. I just want to help you. I know there will be days when nothing I say will make you happy, when nothing I do will help in any way. But I will still be here, right beside you. Where I belong."

Anna pulled her knees to her chest still leaning on Elsa. Tears were running down her cheeks again, and she sighed heavily. She could feel herself falling asleep against Elsa and shook her head trying to keep herself awake. Sleep was very bad for her. Very bad indeed. Though she didn't know how to explain to anyone why. "What if it's not okay?"

"I won't let it be not okay," Elsa said seriously. "I'll fight off all the bad guys. I'll slay all the dragons, I'll guard you in your sleep. I won't let anyone hurt you. Ever again."

"Some things you just can't control, Elsa," Anna whispered. She was shaking a little. Elsa gently wrapped her arm around her. Something about the way she did that made Anna feel a little safer. Just a little. But even that little bit of safety was more than Anna ever could have hoped for. She'd always thought she'd never feel safe. Especially not after the way her parents treated her when they found out she and Elsa had kissed.

Soon Adrianna walked over to them, having finished talking with the governor. She unlocked the car and put Anna's bags in the trunk. She looked at the two girls who were oddly quiet and sighed. Hoping that whatever fear had been instilled in Anna wasn't wholly unreplaceable.

Elsa helped Anna to stand and they got in the back of the car, where Anna could lean against Elsa the whole way home.

_But, _Anna thought, _is this even my home? _


	8. Chapter 8

They were halfway back to Elsa's house, when Anna fell asleep. As much as she had tried fighting it. Elsa made such a good pillow.

Elsa smiled at Anna, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl gently. "You'll be okay," she whispered. "Don't worry about anything. I'll take care of you."

Anna moved closer to Elsa in her sleep. The world around her dark and seemingly empty. She looked around the darkness, hoping that nothing would be waiting for her this time. Hoping that maybe she could just sleep comfortably for once.

"Anna how could you." She heard the voice and sighed. She'd hoped for the best, but was proven wrong, again. Just like every time she fell asleep. She knew the voice well. It was so accusatory. Just like it always was.

"I'm sorry mom," she tried saying. Apologizing just like every time. Trying to make up for what she had done wrong. Not even really understanding that the only wrong thing she had done was existing.

"Sorry doesn't fix this. How could you. I didn't raise you to be like this."

She tried to close her eyes, to shut out the voice that seemed to come from everywhere. "I'm sorry."

"You're pathetic."

"I don't mean to be."

"You're nothing but a screw up. Why can't you be more like your sister?"

"I'm trying."

"Trying my patience."

"Mom, what can I do?"

"Stop."

"Stop what?"

"Stop existing as the fuck up you are now."

"But, I don't even know what I did wrong this time."

"It doesn't matter. Just stop it."

Anna closed her eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. "All I'm doing is existing."

"Stop it."

She took a deep breath and tried to calm down. All she wanted to do was live, but here she was, living and all her mind could think to do was tell her to stop. She trembled a little. "I don't want to stop existing."

"You won't." Anna's eyes shot open and she looked around. It was still dark, but that voice, it was new to this place.

"Elsa?" she whispered tentatively.

"I'm right here, Anna." Anna felt something on her back. Then her cheek, but she still couldn't see what was there. "I'm not going to let anything make you stop existing. I'm going to help you."

Elsa wasn't quite sure that Anna could hear her in her sleep, but she knew she had to try. She'd promised her that she wouldn't let anything hurt her and she wasn't about to let that promise be a lie. She wasn't about to let this nightmare hurt Anna anymore. She hugged the smaller girl close. "You're going to be just fine Anna. I promise."

"Elsa," Anna whispered, "I'm scared." She clung to the thing in the dark holding her, not completely realizing that it was indeed Elsa.

Elsa kissed her girlfriend's cheek. "It's okay to be scared. I'm here now, I'll protect you. You can be scared. I'll still be right here. I'll be strong for you. I'll carry you. You don't need to worry about anything nothing is going to hurt you as long as I am here."

Anna shook her head slightly. "You don't understand."

"Then help me understand," Elsa whispered.

"I messed up."

"How?"

"By existing."

Elsa sighed and hugged her close. "You didn't mess up by existing."

Anna shook her head again and repeated. "You don't understand."

"What am I not understanding? You think you messed up by existing, but I happen to know that you didn't."

"I'm not who I am supposed to be."

"Anna, you're who you are. You aren't supposed to be anyone else."

"I'm not who I am supposed to be," Anna repeated. "I messed up."

"Anna, you didn't mess up. You're perfect exactly the way you are. I promise. You are exactly who you are supposed to be."

"But I'm not who my mom says I'm supposed to be."

"That doesn't matter. You are who you are supposed to be. You will never be who someone else says you're supposed to be."

"I don't understand."

"That's okay, in time you will." Elsa kissed Anna's cheek gently. "Please wake up."

Anna pulled herself closer to Elsa. "Don't leave me."

"I'm not going to." Elsa held Anna gently. "But you need to wake up. Please it's alright I'm right here. I'll still be here when you wake up. I promise."

Anna tried not to lose her grip on the thing in the shadows of her dream that promised to be Elsa, and doubly promised not to leave her when she woke up. But this place in her mind scared her and she ended up letting go of what promised to be Elsa and squeezing her eyes shut tightly. After a minute she opened her eyes again and stared up at Elsa.

"You're really still here," she whispered. "I almost can't believe it."

"Yeah, "Elsa whispered. "I'm still here. I'm not going to leave you."

Anna snuggled closer to Elsa. "You're brave" she whispered.

"So are you," Elsa whispered back. "Braver than me in fact."

"Liar," Anna whispered back dismissively.

Elsa sighed and kissed her cheek. "You know I love you."

"I love you too."

Elsa smiled again and glanced out of the car window. It was really dark, but she could tell they were almost to her house. "We're almost there," she whispered to Anna.

Anna nodded and sat up stretching some. "I can't believe this is really happening."

Elsa looked over to her. She couldn't read the emotions on her face. "Can't believe what's happening?"

"I'm finally moving in with you. I'm actually moving in with you. Just like we talked about when we were little. It's finally happening. I can be with you all the time, as long as you let me I mean, I'm not going to like stalk you or anything, or force my company on you if you don't want it. But I'm finally going to get to do what makes me happy. Being with my girlfriend, in a place where I don't have to worry about us being judged." Anna didn't even pause to take a breath during all this rambling so it kind of came out jumbled up and fast paced.

Elsa listened and watched as her girlfriend rambled on about what she couldn't believe. She smiled and chuckled contentedly. She'd never seen Anna this happy before. She hoped it was a side of Anna she could start seeing more of. It was beautiful.


	9. Chapter 9

"Anna," Adrianna said from the front seat. "Let me take your things inside when we get there. I think there's something Elsa has been wanting to tell you."

"Mom, please," Elsa whined.

"Hush, Elsa, it was your idea. You're going to tell her about it."

"Am I really?" Elsa asked quietly.

"Yes, you are."

Adrianna parked the car in the garage. She smiled and turned in her seat to look at the girls. "Elsa I swear that if you don't tell Anna what you're supposed to tell her, I won't let you in the house. Her yes, you no." She go out of the car and got Anna's bags out of the trunk.

"Elsa what on earth has gotten into your mom? What is she talking about?"

"Well to be honest there's something I need to tell you about."

"You aren't breaking up with me are you?"

"What!?" Elsa gasped and shook her head. "No, never. I just, there's something you need to know. We've been keeping it from you for a while now."

"Elsa what is it?" Anna asked quietly, honestly expecting Elsa to say something along the lines of _I was born a boy._

"You know that room in the house we kept not letting you in?"

"Oh my god are you hiding a body in there?"

"Anna what in the world is going on in your head? No one in my family is a murderer. Okay, so Rapunzel works in a hospital and people die there, be we aren't hiding any bodies. Jeez, Anna, do you really think my family is that weird?"

"Yes, I mean they have to be to love me."

"Anna, back to that room. We've been working on something very important in there. It'd be easier to show you, but my mom won't let me in until I tell you what's going on. So I'll just tell you. The room used to be an office room in my house. Well it's not any more. Anna do you like stars?"

"Like stars in the sky?"

"Yes, exactly like stars in the sky."

"I love them."

"I hoped so. Well… Okay the easiest way for me to explain this now is all at once. My mom has been friends with your parents since they were little until about six months ago, I guess around the time they kicked you out. When she told me what she felt was going to happen, which was well before it actually happened, I gave her the idea, which helped her formulate her plan. She really does care about Anna, so we turned that old office into…well…into a bedroom. For you."

"A bedroom? For me?" Anna shook her head looking down slightly with tears in her eyes. She smiled and jumped up to hug Elsa, the tears starting to stream down her cheeks. "A room just for me."

"You say that like it's a novelty." Elsa hugged Anna back.

"It is, for me." Anna sat back tears still running down her cheeks, but she didn't seem sad.

Elsa tilted her head a little. "I thought you had a room of your own back when you lived with your parents."

"I had a room, but it wasn't mine. It was Yvette's."

"Yvette? Your older sister? But she moved out five years ago."

"So what. Do you honestly think my parents care when she left, or that she's not coming back? She was their perfect angel. Doing no wrong ever. They made me keep her room the exact same way she had it. I wasn't allowed to get rid of her clothes that she left, or any of her stuff. Wasn't allowed to move anything in the room. Wasn't allowed to buy any sheets or blankets for the bed that she wouldn't have bought. They never wanted me. They wanted another her."

"That's awful. But I promise things are going to be better for you here. The room is yours to do with as you please. Except if you want to move things around, ask my dad for help. He'd be more than glad to help you. Currently the walls and ceiling are like a night in a meadow, I thought you'd like that. Would you like to see?"

Anna practically was jumping with excitement. "I'd love to." Then she sobered a little. "I need to. To make sure it's real."

Elsa smiled and nodded. She didn't quite understand how her girlfriend's mind worked, but she was trying. She opened the door of the car and go out, standing and stretching. She held her hand out for Anna when she was done stretching. Anna took her hand tentatively, still not quite sure that she trusted that Elsa's family really wanted her to be with them. Elsa walked hand in hand with Anna across the garage to the door into the kitchen and opened it for her.

Adrianna was waiting for them inside at the kitchen table sipping on a glass of hot chocolate. She smiled at them. "I trust you told her," she said pointedly at Elsa.

"I get my own room?" Anna asked quietly, testing herself. Trying to see if Elsa had been telling the truth or just made something up to make her feel better.

Adrianna smiled. "That you do. Though you asked that like you were expecting to share Elsa's room, or sleep on the couch or something."

"I don't know what I was expecting," Anna sighed. "I really don't. All of this, is new to me."

"This?" Adrianna took another sip of her hot chocolate. "You've been here before Anna."

"No I haven't. Not like this." She pulled her hand away from Elsa's gently. "That's not what I meant. This, the fact that someone other than my girlfriend actually cares about me, that's what's new to me. I don't quite understand it yet."

Adrianna smiled slightly. "I suppose that's a fair thought, knowing how your parents were. But don't worry yourself too much about it. You'll understand it someday. It may take weeks or years even. But someday you will."

"I don't know about that, but I'll try to learn." Anna smiled and yawned a little. "Elsa you were going to show me the room."

"Your room," Elsa said gently and smiled.

"My room," Anna yawned.

Elsa took Anna's hand gently and walked out of the kitchen with her. She led Anna through the hallway, doors on both side were closed. They passed the study, one of the bathrooms and the master bedroom. Then they turned and headed up the steps across from the parlor at the far side of the house. Elsa smiled leading Anna down the short hallway upstairs, past the guest bedroom and the library – or as Elsa referred to it as a child the book room – and stopped about halfway down the hall. Elsa's room was on the left, but instead of opening her door like she usually did she turned to the door on the right, across the hall from hers, and opened it.

The room, which was once a boring cream color and empty except for a desk, was now considerably more roomy. The carpet was green, with little spots of pink, blue and purple, the bottom of the walls painted resembling grass and meadow flowers laying back under a gentle spring breeze and as the walls progressed towards the ceiling it the painting transitioned into one of the nights sky on a cloudless star-filled night. The furniture in the room had been painted to fit in the theme too, the closet door was painted like a tree with the night behind it and grass at its roots, even the bed fit the theme.

"I know how much you like nature, so I thought you might enjoy this. If you don't that's okay we can change it to something you do like."

Anna walked into the room a little ways. She stared at it in awe. She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out.

Elsa watched as Anna stared around the room, not sure if her speechlessness was caused by not liking the room or by not having expecting someone to put so much work into something for her.

"I can add anything I want? Change anything I want?" Anna asked when her words finally returned and she started slowly walking around the room, running her hands over her dresser, vanity and nightstand as she got to them, then sitting and bouncing on her bed for a second.

"Certainly, just name it and I'll see to it that someone knows to do it," Elsa said lovingly, but with a business like nod of her head.

"Snow, a light dusting of snow. On everything," Anna said. "Like not enough that the grass would be completely covered, just a light dusting. If you understand what I mean. A spring snow, not a winter one."

Elsa nodded thinking about that, picturing it in her head. "That sounds beautiful, though I don't know how easily we could incorporate that into your bedspread."

"The bedspread is lovely as is," Anna smiled. "Though it be lovelier with you and me under it being snuggly."

"What are you suggesting, Anna?" Elsa asked curiously.

"Less suggesting and more subtly asking, will you sleep with me in here tonight? Just in case I have like another nightmare or something."

Elsa smiled. Underneath Anna trying to seem braver than she was, and joking around, she was still scared, but willing to admit it. "Of course. Just let me go change first, and put my camera up."

Elsa left the room and headed across to her own to get ready for bed, leaving Anna alone in her room.

Anna stared around the room for a moment, slightly overwhelmed that they would do all of this, for her. She let herself fall onto her bed smiling slightly, but also thinking. _I have my own room. My own room. Elsa says this is my home now. But I don't even know what home feels like or how I'll know for sure when I'm actually finally AT HOME here._


	10. Chapter 10

Elsa returned to Anna's room in her favorite pajamas, they had cats on them. She smiled when she saw Anna laying on the bed staring up at the ceiling.

"I see them," Anna whispered to herself. "Constellations. These aren't real ones. They're much more beautiful. I think Elsa designed them herself. Rearranged the stars in the sky to tell my favorite story of the ice queen and her fiery sister."

Elsa smiled, she thought about letting Anna know that she was here, but she didn't want to interrupt Anna's admiration of the stars on her ceiling.

"One day," Anna whispered. "Perhaps one day. We will have our own happy ending. We could grow old together, and live in a lovely little house with kids, maybe. Oh I'd love to see the day when we are allowed to adopt kids. I don't know that I want kids right now, and maybe I'll never want kids. But still, knowing that I could adopt a kid that would be a good feeling. But that won't happen any time soon. Hell in most places it's still illegal for me to exist much less adopt a child." Anna sighed. Sometimes she wished she didn't listen quite as much to all the wannabe politicians at school, but she did learn a lot from watching them argue. Learned things like whose voice still cracked when they were passionate about something, when it was wrong to give an opinion instead of a fact, and who the biggest jerks were.

Anna sat up on the bed and smiled at Elsa. "Having fun watching me?" she asked.

"I am," Elsa said smiling back at her. "And listening to you."

"Wait, I was talking?"

"Yes. I heard every word." Elsa grinned and walked over to Anna. She sat down beside her on the green and flowery bedspread and turned her gaze toward the ceiling. "I did design them." She smiled again almost dreamily. "It was a really fun thing to do. The entire time I was designing and painting them I kept thinking to myself 'Anna is going to love this. If for no other reason than she always loves when I paint things for her.'"

Anna smiled and hugged Elsa. "You're the best girlfriend ever," she said quietly.

"I don't think so, I think you are," Elsa said hugging Anna back. "Please don't ask why, I'm too tired to explain it properly right now."

Anna nodded and stood up, looking around the room for her bags. When she couldn't find them she frowned slightly. "What did your mom do with my stuff, I wonder."

"She probably put your clothes in the dresser, and the bags in the closet," Elsa replied getting up and walking over to the dresser to see if she was right. When she opened it, she saw it was empty except for one pair of pajamas. "Well now, this is intriguing. These, are my old pajamas."

"Anna's clothes are being washed," Adrianna said from the door, causing both Elsa and Anna to jump. "Also your dad's downstairs with someone who'd very much like to see you."

"Who is it?" Elsa asked curiously.

"Just go see."

Elsa smiled. "Anna wanna come see who it is?"

Anna nodded and followed Elsa out the door and back down the hallway to the stairs. When they were halfway down the stairs though, Elsa suddenly stopped walking and whispered, "oh my god." Before bounding down the remaining steps two at a time.

"You found Karson!" She ran up to her dad and gave him a really big hug, before turning to the Alaskan Husky sitting next to her dad and giving him a huge hug too. She was nearly crying with joy. Karson had been missing for two months. Karson in return for the hug, licked Elsa's face and wagged his tail happily.

"Karson?" Anna whispered from the bottom of the stairs, not quite able to believe it herself.

Karson perked his ears at hearing Anna's voice. He hadn't been expecting her to be here, but he was glad she was. He stood up, accidentally knocking Elsa over, which he apologized for by licking her face one more time and nuzzling her hair for a second before he made his way over to Anna and sat down in front of her. He tilted his head slightly. Anna smiled and sat down in front of Karson. He smiled a doggy smile at her and put his head on her shoulder, prompting her to hug him so that he knew she was okay. When Anna hugged him though, somehow he knew something wasn't quite right. Just like every time she hugged him. He scooted himself a little closer and put a paw on one of her legs. He whined just a tiny bit and Anna pulled away from her hug.

"What's wrong buddy? Are you worried about me?" she asked quietly.

He whined a little bit more and nuzzled her neck.

"I'll be okay, buddy," she told him. "I promise."

He whined a third time and pulled his head away from her neck. He started sniffing her all over, then when he got to her right side he whined really loudly and gently pressed his nose to her shirt.

"Ow. Karson stop."

He looked up at her with concerned doggy eyes and whined once more, beseeching Elsa and her dad to come over and help his little friend.

"Karson, I'm fine. Stop pressing your nose there that hurts."

Elsa shook her head and walked over to Anna. "Anna, if it hurts you can't be fine."

Karson whined in agreement and put his head on her lap, having accomplished his goal of getting another human to come over and help her.

"I'm fine," Anna said seriously, trying to get Elsa and Karson to let the matter drop.

Karson whimpered and Anna sighed, she really didn't want to make Karson sad, he was too sweet, too adorable to be sad.

"Okay, fine, you win Karson. I'm not fine." She shook her head. "But I will be. It's just a bruise. It will heal."

Karson sat up and licked Anna's cheek gently. He was happy that she finally stopped lying about being hurt, but he wasn't happy that she lied about how much she was hurt. He could smell the blood. It was just too bad that his humans couldn't understand husky. He wanted to tell them. To let them know that Anna was hurt more than she wanted them to know, but they wouldn't be able to understand his words. He nuzzled Anna's hand gently trying to encourage her to tell them the complete truth.

Elsa stared at her dog trying to figure out what was going on in his head, the way his ears were twitching told her there was definitely something wrong. But she had no idea what it might be, unless it had to do with Anna and her bruise. She watched as he nuzzled Anna's hand. It was times like these that Elsa really wished that her dog could speak. Instead she just sighed and sat down beside Anna.

"How long have you had this bruise?" Elsa asked quietly.

"A couple weeks," Anna sighed, "but it's going to get better, I know it will."

"Anna, a bruise that sticks around that long, probably has some tiny cuts in it that need medicine to heal properly. I know you don't want to go to a hospital but please, at least let us take you to my doctor. She's great. I promise you, I'll be there the whole time and nothing bas will happen."

Anna sighed again, she knew Elsa was right. But she really didn't want to see a doctor. "I'll go," she said quietly. "But only because you said please."

Karson licked Anna's hand gently. He was happy that she agreed to get help. He just wanted her to feel better again, was all.

"Can we go to sleep now though?" Anna asked yawning slightly. "Karson wanna sleep on my bed tonight?"

Karson nodded happily and stood up. Elsa helped Anna stand up and they both said goodnight to Elsa's dad who smiled happily and headed to the master bedroom to get himself ready for bed.

Elsa, Anna and Karson made their way upstairs and back to Anna's room. Karson surveyed the room happily while Anna changed into Elsa's old pajamas. When she was dressed Anna went over to the bed and pulled the blanket back. She got under the blanked and smiled, waiting for Elsa to join her. When Elsa joined her, Anna snuggled close and Karson climbed up onto the bed.

"Goodnight, Elsa," Anna said pulling the blanket up over them.

Karson readjusted himself so that the blanket didn't cover his nose.

"Goodnight Anna," Elsa whispered back, holding Anna gently.

"Goodnight Karson," they said together and in response he whined gently and yawned.


	11. Chapter 11

Anna twitched a little in her sleep. She tried to snuggle closer to Elsa but found herself unable. It was a seemingly fruitless effort to get to the comfort that was Elsa. Elsa put her arm over Anna and tried to help her. Anna whimpered a little and tried once again in vain to snuggle closer to Elsa.

"Anna, it's okay," Elsa whispered trying to hold her girlfriend close. "I'm here."

Anna simply whimpered a little more. Karson perked up his head and looked at his two little humans. Anna seemed, to him, to be frightened of something. But what? He moved closer to her. He wished there was something he could do to help, some way he could make her not suffer anymore. He whined softly, asking in his own doggy way if she was okay. Karson laid his head on Anna's side. All he wanted for her was happy.

"Elsa it hurts," Anna whimpered.

"What hurts?"

"Everything."

"Anything more specific?"

"My leg," Anna whimpered.

Karson stood up on the bed, pulling the blanket off the two girls. Elsa gasped. "Anna you're bleeding."

"It hurts," she whimpered.

"Of course it hurts, you're bleeding. Anna, you need to go to the hospital."

"I'm scared."

"The doctors will help you," Elsa whispered reasonably.

Anna didn't say anything else, just kept whimpering. Elsa sighed and got out of the bed and ran out of the room. "Mom," she called out heading to the last place she saw her mom. "Mom, Mom, Mom."

"What is it Elsa?" Adrianna asked walking out of the kitchen.

"Anna's bleeding."

"What? Show me."

Elsa led Adrianna to Anna. Adrianna took a look at the spot of blood forming on Anna's pant leg and sighed. "Anna, sweetie. We're going to have to take you to the hospital okay?"

Anna simply whimpered again, wondering how long her leg had been bleeding, and why she didn't feel it until now. Karson whimpered and got off the bed. He rested his nose on the edge of the bed trying to let Anna know that he was there for her, but she didn't notice him. She really just wanted nothing more than for her leg to stop hurting, and at this point she honestly didn't care that that meant she'd be taken to the hospital.

"Elsa," Adrianna said quietly. "I'm going to need your help."

Elsa nodded waiting for her mom to give instructions.

"We need to slow the bleeding enough that we can get her to the hospital."

Elsa nodded and looked around for something to use to stifle the bleeding. She ran to the bathroom and found the first aid kit. She brought it back to her mom. "Will this help?"

Anna whimpered and laid still trying to think about anything other than how much her leg hurt. Adrianna searched through the kit. But not finding what she needed put the kit aside and said, "We need to get her to the car, but we do need to slow the bleeding. So we need to put pressure on the wound."

Elsa nodded, that made sense to her. "How, we can't carry her and put pressure on her leg at the same time, and she can't walk with it. Should we call EMS instead?"

Adrianna nodded and thought about it. It would probably be better to have EMS take her in to the hospital. But she didn't know how long that would take. "Yes we probably should."

Anna whimpered and reached out her hand for Elsa's. Elsa sat down on the bed and took Anna's hand. "You're going to be fine Anna. I promise."

Adrianna walked out of the room and went to get the phone so she could call EMS and explain the problem. Elsa sat on the bed with Anna hoping that she was going to be okay.

"Elsa I'm scared."

"You're going to be okay Anna. I promise."

Anna shook her head and whimpered. "I'm scared. The hospital scares me. I don't want to go, but I have to."

"Why does the hospital scare you?" Elsa asked quietly.

"I don't know, it just does." Anna was crying, tears slipping down her cheeks, terrified of what could happen at the hospital. She really didn't want to go there. She couldn't for the life of her explain why, but she knew she didn't want to go. Somehow at the same time she knew she would be in more trouble not going than if she did go.

Elsa nodded. She knew what it was like to be scared of a place, but not being able to say why. For the longest time she was the same way about the mall. She never was able to explain to anyone why she was so terrified of the mall for so many years. Though she supposed it had something to do with the fear of people that she had. "It's okay Anna. I know how you feel. I used to feel the same way about the mall."

"The mall?" Anna whispered.

"Yes, the mall. It was the scariest place on Earth for me. I could never explain why, no matter how hard I tried. That place terrified me. I never went if I could help it."

Anna nodded, it wasn't quite the same as being afraid of the hospital, but somehow it did make her feel a little better.

It was only about ten minutes later that EMS showed up. Adrianna had met them at the door and led them up to Anna's room. The EMTs that had arrived were a young man and a young woman.

"Anna?" The young woman asked quietly. Anna raised her head a little. "My name is Clara, I'm with the EMS is it alright if I take a look at your leg?"

Anna nodded, hoping that if EMS looked at her while she was still home that she wouldn't have to go to the hospital at all.

Clara walked over to the bed and sat her supply bag down. She examined the blood on Anna's pajama pants to try and figure out where on her leg the cut might be. She determined it was on Anna's calf. She gently lifted the fabric of the pajamas away from the cut, and checked it over.

"This is bad," Clara said. "It looks like there's bits of broken glass in the cut."

Anna whimpered. "Make it stop hurting," she said quietly.

"I'm going to try," Clara said quietly. "Dave, I'm going to need the tweezers and a towel."

"Is this going to hurt?" Elsa whispered.

"Probably, but we have to get the glass out, before we try to make the cut stop bleeding or else the glass could end up getting pushed deeper into the cut, and that won't be good."

"Anna," Elsa whispered as Dave and Clara were getting ready to clean the glass out of Anna's cut. "Anna, take my hand. And squeeze it. Please, they need to clean the cut, but they can't do that if you don't let them. Please, don't fight them. I know it's going to hurt, but let it. Just hold my hand. I'll be right here. I'll always be right here."

Anna whimpered, but did like Elsa asked, squeezing her hand as Clara and Dave carefully picked the pieces of glass out of the cut. It hurt much more than Anna wanted to admit, as was evident by how hard she was squeezing Elsa's hand. When her cut was cleaned of glass Clara told the two girls that they would need to clean it out with an antiseptic wash, and that it might sting some. Anna bit her lip a little and looked to Elsa, who looked back at her lovingly and mouthed 'I'm still here for you.'

Again Anna whimpered as they cleaned the cut, and Elsa wiped a few tears off of her cheek. "Why does it hurt so much?" Anna whispered.

"Because the antiseptic is killing the germs, but the germs are fighting with their little swords and they keep missing the antiseptic soldiers, because everyone knows germs have bad aim with swords and as such the germs keep hitting you. But it's okay because the antiseptic soldiers have excellent aim and are killing those clumsy germ soldiers. It'll only hurt as long as the germs keep fighting, and then a little bit after. It'll ease in time, once the germ soldiers are dead and the wounds they gave you heal. It'll ease. I promise," Elsa said reasonably.

Anna smiled a little. "Is the antiseptic army winning?"

Clara nodded. "Yes, it is."

"That's good," Anna said. "Do I still have to go to the hospital?"

"That's probably a good idea," Clara said. "You need stitches." She and Dave worked on stopping the bleeding with a clean cloth. "Dave and I could take you to the hospital, or your friend's mom could. Which would you prefer?"

Anna thought about it. "Which way would I get out of there faster?"

Clara and Dave shared a slightly confused look. "If we took you in, they'd see to you quicker, but I don't know if that necessarily means you'd leave faster."

"Can Elsa ride with me?"

Again Clara and Dave shared a slightly confused look.

Adrianna stepped in and explained it quickly. "Anna's only 15. Elsa's 18. She's an adult that can be responsible for her. I promise."

Clara nodded. "What about Anna's parents, shouldn't we contact them? Wouldn't they want to know that their daughter is going to the hospital?"

"I swear to god if you try to tell my parents I won't go," Anna said with as much anger as her pain would allow. It wasn't much, but it was enough that the paramedics understood that her parents weren't to be contacted.

"About that. They kind of disowned her," Adrianna said simply. "I'm in charge of her now."

"I see," Clara said. "So you're her legal guardian. Then shouldn't you ride in the ambulance with her?"

"I may be her legal guardian, but Elsa is her best friend. She knows more about Anna than I bet Anna knows about herself."

"Anna's allergic to celery," Elsa said as though to prove the point.

"I am not. I love celery. It's nice, I like bitter foods."

"Anna, celery tastes like water, it's not bitter. You're allergic."

"I guess maybe she does know more about me than me."

Elsa smiled and nodded. "So does this mean I'm allowed to ride in the ambulance with her?"

Clara nodded. "Yes. I'd say it does."

Elsa smiled. "How are you going to get her to the ambulance?"

"I thought she'd walk."

Elsa frowned. "But won't that make her leg bleed more?"

"If you don't want her to walk, carry her. But we stopped the bleeding, and as long as that bandage doesn't come off before we get her to the hospital, she should be fine."

Elsa nodded. "Anna do you want to walk or do you want me to carry you?"

"Can you?" Anna asked quietly.

Elsa nodded. "Of course." She moved around the bed and helped Anna sit up, then picked her up, piggy back style. "Comfy?"

"Yeah," Anna yawned. "And it doesn't hurt as bad now. Does that mean the army won?"

"I think so." Elsa smiled. "I definitely think so."


	12. Chapter 12

Elsa and Anna returned home from the hospital about ten hours later. Anna had several stitches in her arms, leg and left side. She was leaning on Elsa as they walked up the stairs. Karson looked out from Anna's room, waiting for his humans to return. He was worried about them, and rightfully so after how long they had been gone. He walked over to them, being careful not to get in their way. He sniffed at Anna and deciding that she was no longer lying about not being hurt very bad licked her hand.

Anna smiled slightly and whispered, "I'm okay Karson. Just tired."

Elsa smiled and continued walking Anna back to her room. She smiled when she noticed that the blankets had been washed. "Would you like to take a nap before lunch?"

Anna nodded and walked over to the bed. She laid down on top of the blanket and put her head on the pillow, being careful of the bandage on her right cheek. "Elsa," Anna whispered. "I'm sorry I lied to you, about how hurt I was."

"It's okay Anna. I know you had good reasons." Elsa smiled at Anna, wanting her to see that she wasn't mad at her. She wasn't even slightly annoyed. She knew Anna just wanted to keep her from worrying so much.

"No I didn't. I had no reason. None." Anna looked like she wanted to cry.

"It's okay, Anna, shhh…" She sat beside Anna and gently ran her fingers through Anna's hair. She hummed to Anna quietly. "Don't worry Anna. Everything is going to be okay. I promise."

Anna shook her head a little. She didn't understand how Elsa could be so positive about everything. She tried to keep herself from crying, but it wasn't working very well. Karson crawled up onto the bed with them carefully. He curled up with his head resting on Anna's arm and gently licked her cheek. His little human was sad and that made him sad. He didn't know how his little human had gotten hurt, but he did know that she needed to be protected.

Elsa gently wiped the tears away from Anna's eyes. "You're going to be okay. Maybe not today, but someday. I'll always be here for you."

Anna looked up at Elsa and whispered, "Lay with me?"

Elsa smiled a little and laid down beside Anna gently pulling her into her arms. "I'm here for you," she whispered.

Anna nodded and snuggled against Elsa. She was crying, despite the effort she made not to be. "Elsa," she whispered. "My stomach hurts."

"When was the last time you ate?" Elsa asked gently running her hands through Anna's hair.

"I don't know, a while ago," Anna answered sadly.

"Do you want me to go see if mom has lunch ready yet?" Elsa asked quietly.

"No." Anna looked up at her. "I don't want you to leave."

Elsa hugged Anna close. "I won't leave. I promise. Don't worry, okay? I'll be right here."

"I'm not worried, Elsa. I'm scared." Anna tried to snuggle closer to Elsa but she couldn't quite manage it, she was already as close as she could get. But Elsa hugged her closer anyways, kissing her forehead. "I'm scared that if you leave you won't come back."

Elsa gently stroked Anna's hair, placing kisses on her forehead every now and then. "It's okay Anna," she whispered as soothingly as she could. "I'm not going anywhere without you." Elsa looked over to Karson for a moment and an idea struck her. "What if I send Karson? He could go find out if lunch is ready."

Anna looked up quizzically. "How would he do that?"

"It's simple," Elsa said with a small smile. "I attach a note to Karson's collar and send him to the kitchen and he gets mom's attention and she sends him back with a response. I used to do this a lot when I was little and sick."

Anna tilted her head a little but didn't respond. It sounded like a strange idea to her, but Elsa and her mom were probably used to communicating that way. Elsa reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and wrote the little note for her mom.

"Karson come here boy," she said quietly.

Karson carefully walked over to Elsa without stepping on Anna. He waited for Elsa to attach the note to his collar and then jumped off the bed. He licked Elsa's hand before heading out of the room.

Elsa smiled and hugged Anna. Anna snuggled against Elsa, with her head on her shoulder. Pretty soon Anna fell asleep. She pressed herself against Elsa, trying to ward off the darkness as long as she possibly could.

"She doesn't really love you," the voice in the dark said.

Anna looked around but couldn't find the source of the voice. "Why can't you just leave me alone?" Anna asked her voice cracking a little.

"Because I'm your mother and you should listen to me."

"Elsa does love me. I know she does."

"You thought the same about that boy."

"No," Anna whimpered a little. "I never thought he loved me. You wanted me to think he did but I never did."

"Liar."

Anna whimpered and shrunk into herself a little. She hated this. Her mom hated her so much in real life that it has been invading her dreams for years. She wanted to run away and hide. But with the darkness being as constraining as it was she couldn't move from her spot, much less see anywhere to hide.

"You always were a liar. I hate that about you."

"You hate everything about me."

"There's nothing about you to love. You're weak. You're pathetic. You trust everyone."

Anna shot up, finally having heard the one thing that she couldn't stand to hear. "No. I trust the ones I love. I don't just trust people. There's always a reason. Complete strangers, yeah maybe I trust them a little, but it's not like I'm trusting them with my life. I trust them to do the right things. I don't trust people unless they earn it. I trust Elsa. She's never given me a reason not to. I trust her mom and dad. But you know who I don't trust. You."

"You're a brat."

"Like you even care. You said it yourself, I'm not your kid anymore. What does it matter if I'm a brat? I'm Elsa's brat now."

The darkness seemed less constraining now, she could move. She didn't however, she was too afraid of running into some likeness of her mother out there in the dark. Or worse. Though she didn't want to think of what could be worse than her mother.

"You are going to regret disobeying me. I think some friends of yours are here to play."

A hand reached out of the dark and grabbed Anna's arm, and then she knew. She knew what could be worse than her mother. Another hand joined the one in the dark this one grabbing her other arm. The only thing Anna could think to do was scream. And like a bad movie special effect the scream shattered the darkness.

Anna sat up on the bed, nearly knocking Elsa off.

"Anna, it's just a dream, are you okay?" Elsa scrambled to stay on the bed, and at the same time keep her voice sounding just as reassuring as she knew it needed to be.

"I'm fine," Anna said her voice quavering.

Elsa wrapped her arms around Anna gently. "I'm sorry my voice didn't make it into the dream this time," she whispered.

"Really, Elsa, I'm fine." Anna knew there wasn't really any point in trying to hide how she really felt from Elsa, but for some reason she just couldn't bring herself to tell Elsa how scared she felt.

Elsa kissed her cheek. "I love you, Anna. It's okay to be scared. That must have been one hell of a dream, you scared Karson."

Anna looked around and saw Karson staring at her worriedly from the bottom of the bed. "Aw, Karson, I'm sorry. Come here boy. I didn't mean to scare you."

Karson slowly inched his way over to the girls and laid his head on Anna's lap. Anna scratched the top of his head and he smiled a doggy smile. He knew Anna was going to be okay. She wasn't really hurt, just scared. That didn't mean he had to like it though. He wished once more that his humans could understand husky. He wanted to ask them what had made her so scared.

"Lunch is in five minutes, Anna," Elsa said gently running her hands through Anna's hair. "Would you like to change before you go down?"

Anna shook her head. "Let's just go have some lunch. I'm hungry."


	13. Chapter 13

**A.N. To make the story work better I had to edit something in a previous chapter. The amount of years ago that Anna's sister Yvette moved out of their parents' house. Now instead of it being 12 years ago, it's only five. Thanks and sorry for any confusion that could possibly have been caused.**

* * *

Elsa walked down to the kitchen with Anna leaning against her. It was a little slow going, but they didn't care, neither of them wanted Anna's stitches to break. When they got in the kitchen they were a little surprised by what they saw waiting for them at the table. Adrianna had made them a rather big lunch, and there was a guest at the table.

Anna shook her head in disbelief when she saw the man sitting at the table. He was handsome, in his own way, sure but he shouldn't have been there. His shiny blue hair only made him seem more out of place. "Why are you here? Go home Reggie. You can tell my mom if she actually cares to find me she shouldn't have called me a carpet-muncher," she almost hissed.

"Relax, Anna," Reggie said. "I'm not going to tell your mom where you are. Yvette saw you on the news last night and wanted me to check on you." He smiled at her. As far as Anna knew he'd been with her sister for almost as long as she'd been alive. But she didn't trust him. Probably because she saw him but never her sister, or it could have been because she felt like he was hiding something from her.

"If Yvette really cared why wouldn't she come herself? What kind of sister is she? I haven't seen her except in pictures. She doesn't even come around at Christmas. Is she even real?"

Reggie's smile faltered. For a brief moment he debated on telling the truth, but afraid her reaction would be similar to the reaction of her parents to finding out Anna liked girls, decided against it. "She's very real. And very sorry she hasn't been around. Her job keeps her extremely busy." It was the only part of the truth he could tell without knowing how she'd react to the rest.

"Where is my sister?" Anna snapped. She pulled away from Elsa and stood up straight and tall, all her exhaustion gone, pushed away by her anger. "I'm tired of being lied to about her. Where is she? Dad said she went to UPenn, but I talked to people there. No one had ever heard of her. There was no record of her ever going there. I'm tired of people lying to me. I just want to know if she's even still alive. I just want one person other to say that I deserve to know the truth. I'm not some little kid that needs protecting from everything. I'm fourteen years old dammit and I want answers."

"Your sister isn't dead. I _am_ your sister," Reggie shot back. That wasn't at all how he wanted to tell her the truth but he couldn't stand having her not know if the only family she had that cared about her was alive.

"Well why the fuck didn't you just say so?" Anna snapped.

"Anna, language," Adrianna said sternly but warmly at the same time.

"Sorry," Anna squeaked sheepishly. "Seriously, bro, why didn't you just tell me?"

"I was scared you'd react like mom and dad would."

"So you pretended that you're Yvette's boyfriend instead of actually being Yvette? Wait. You've know this about yourself for a long time haven't you? That's why that sticker is on your mirror. Mom and dad don't know the flag."

"Anna, Elsa sit. Please," Reggie said.

"I just have one question myself," Elsa said, taking Anna's hand. "The woman who leaves the messages, the woman who answered the phone and said she was Yvette when I called asking if you could come in for Christmas. Who is she?"

"That's my fiancée, please sit, eat and I'll explain everything."

Elsa looked to Anna, who nodded, then walked to the table still holding Anna's hand. She pulled a chair out for Anna then sat beside her. They helped themselves to some of the food on the table, Anna paying special attention to the macaroni and cheese.

"I don't normally talk about this at all, it's a little uncomfortable for me," Reggie said then smiled warmly. "For you though, I'll talk, but only now and when it's necessary. I've known since I was nine that I wasn't the daughter mom and dad thought I was. But I didn't say anything about it. I was scared to. Mom and dad have never, as far as I know, been accepting of anything like this. Anything that deviates from their norm."

"Like me," Anna said before she could stop herself.

Reggie nodded solemnly. "Yes. From the time you were a little kid you were different. I noticed how mom and dad treated you because of that. I wanted every day to do nothing more that stand up for you, but I was terrified. If I did they'd turn on me too. Then how would I help you? I fully intended on coming back when I was nineteen, with this," he reached into the pocket of his jacket that was hanging off his chair and brought out a small journal. "It's a journal I kept when I was little. I recorded it all, everything mom and dad said or did to you that good parents wouldn't and I put pictures in it too. Like a good detective would. I kept evidence. I fully intended on coming back and getting you away from them. But it was around that time that I started transitioning medically and I just couldn't afford to. I could barely afford my apartment and bills each month. Most of the time I was without much food for weeks at a time, if I had gotten you away from mom and dad then the state would have labeled me unfit to be your guardian and would have put you in the foster system. I don't know that I could have ever gotten you back if that happened."

"So the better option was to leave me with them and show up from time to time to check on me while pretending to them that you were your own boyfriend?" Anna asked trying to clear up some confusion.

"When I left home you were ten. I fully intended to come back on you eleventh birthday, knowing that mom and dad wouldn't celebrate it with you. Take you out with me and then never bring you back to them. Of course I did plan on letting the police know what I was planning on doing and giving them my reason and evidence. But plans don't always work."

"I still don't understand why you never told me any of this." Anna pointed her fork at him when she'd eaten the macaroni that was on it.

"Mom and dad were always listening. There was never a time when I was around that they couldn't hear what I was telling you. I know they made sure of that so I couldn't be able to tell you anything that would contradict what they've told you. Plus as far as they knew I was just your sister's boyfriend, not your sister, well brother, but I don't mind either way. I couldn't tell you without telling them too and they couldn't know. If they knew they'd never let me see you. It doesn't matter now, you're safe."

"Wait," Elsa said suddenly dropping her spoon and accidentally knocking a bit of chicken onto the floor which Karson wasted no time in gobbling up. "How the hell did you know Anna was here?"

"I told him," Adrianna said calmly. "When we were at the hospital with Anna last night. I called him. Sharon suggested it. Said it would make it easier for me to become Anna's legal guardian if there was at least one member of her family that was willing to vouch for it being necessary for Anna's safety that she not be returned to her parents, or removed from her only friend."

"I got the call at ten pm yesterday and like magic everything clicked. Why mom and dad would never tell me why you weren't home. They knew I love you. So I guess to keep me from calling them out on their bad parenting or worse calling the cops on them for endangering your life they didn't want me to know. I'm so sorry Anna that I couldn't help you sooner. I never stopped loving you. Adrianna called me and told me everything, well she didn't tell me much more that I heard listening to the governor's speech. She told me she didn't care for a minute that I was transgender, that I was the only blood relative you have left and you need me." Reggie smiled. "And in response I told her that I needed you as much as you need me. Which is why I'm here today. I had to know that you really were doing well here. I know now is too early to tell for sure, but you already look at least more loved than you ever did at mom and dad's."

Anna smiled a little in return. "I'm sorry I got mad at you. But I really thought you might have been hiding the fact that you were dead which sounds really strange out loud, but it's true." She looked down at her plate for a moment. "When did you get engaged? And when's the wedding?"

"I got engaged three months ago," Reggie said his gaze had immediately softened with love when he thought about his lovely fiancée. "Her name is Janine and she's amazing. I hope you can meet her soon, she works as a high school band teacher. We don't have a date for the wedding yet, but I think Janine would be more than happy if you two were to be part of the ceremony somehow."

Anna smiled and nodded. She was still tired, and her leg was starting to hurt which didn't help any. She really wanted to talk to Reggie more but she had slept less than an hour over the last two days.

"Anna, you look exhausted. That reminds me actually." Adrianna stood up and walked over to the counter where her purse was sitting. "The doctor at the hospital gave me these for you, he said they won't interact with each other so it's safe to take them at the same time." She pulled two pill bottles out of her bag and got one pill out of each. She walked back over to the table and placed the pills in Anna's hand. "The blue one is a sleep aid and the yellow one is pain medicine. Take them both, then go get some sleep. If the doctor was right, your sleep should be deep and dreamless."


	14. Chapter 14

Anna looked at the two pills sitting on the palm of her hand tiredly, but with a little mistrust. Nightmares had kept her terrified in her sleep or awake for as long as she could remember. When she was little it was a little better, because Yvette was there. She wasn't sure it was such a good idea to think that she could sleep without them, even with the help of medicine. Still despite the prospect seeming too good to be true, she had to try. She needed a good night's sleep and she couldn't remember the last time she got one. So she reached out with her other hand and took her glass of milk, then she put both pills in her mouth and drank down half the glass of milk.

"So," Anna said sitting the glass down. "How long do you think it'll be before the meds take effect?"

"Should be at most fifteen minutes," Adrianna said. "Maybe a bit longer. If you want you should go ahead on up to your room and get ready to sleep. I washed the rest of your clothes so your other pajamas are clean now."

Anna nodded and gently tugged on Elsa's hand. "Please come stay with me until I fall asleep."

Elsa smiled. "No problem Anna." She stood up with Anna.

"Will you come back sometime when I'm awake?" Anna asked Reggie.

Reggie smiled. "No problem. Of course I'll come back."

Anna smiled back. "Thanks bro. I love you."

Elsa turned and walked with Anna out of the room.

"So," Reggie said turning to Adrianna. "How long have they known they love each other? When I still lived with Anna, I didn't see anything like that forming between them."

"I think they've known for a while."

"How long have you known?"

"I've had my suspicions for years. But I didn't know for sure until I caught Elsa practicing asking Anna to go on a date with her, two months before that actually happened." Adrianna smiled and drank some more of her cocoa.

"Didn't you and my mom used to be best friends?" Reggie picked up his coffee and drank some more of it.

"We did. A long time ago." Adrianna sat her cup down. "Your mother didn't used to be as closed minded as she is now. When she was little, she was as open minded as I am. I don't know what exactly happened, but that changed. I tried to stay friends with her, but over the years we just grew apart. Partly because of the way she acted about things that are different than her, partly because I couldn't stand seeing what she was doing to Anna."

"Did you ever…try to help?"

"Did I try to help? I did. I tried to help Anna many times. I tried to help your mom see that she was wrong. It never worked. When I learned about how Elsa and Anna really felt for each other I knew I had to do something. We made a plan the three of us. We, Elsa and I, were going to be invited by Anna over to dinner with her family. And if something went wrong when Anna or Elsa let slip that they were dating, I would step in and remind your mother that it wasn't too long before you were born that she was in love with a woman herself."

"Was it you?"

"What?"

"Was it you that my mom loved?"

"I am not going to answer that. It doesn't matter now," Adrianna said with the tone a mother uses to shut down a conversation. "It was three weeks before Anna was supposed to invite us over that - I now know – your parents found out and kicked Anna out. I didn't know what happened until yesterday. At that time I just knew that Anna started acting differently and your parents stopped talking to me. I really wanted to help Anna but she wouldn't tell me what happened. She was afraid. She didn't accept our offers of letting her stay with us, not even for just one night. I was worried, but your parents wouldn't talk to me and neither would she, not like she used to."

"Anna's always been shy, and stubborn. She never liked admitting she needed help or that she was scared of something. Mom, well she was manipulative. She used to tell Anna things, things like she'd never find a boyfriend if she didn't stop acting like such a boy all the time. Like she'd never be worth anything if she couldn't get her grades up. Thing is, Anna as far as I know, has never made less than a high B on anything. Nothing Anna ever did was good enough for mom. Nothing. Dad, he was somewhat better. Sure he agreed with mom on everything she said when she was in the room but as soon as she was gone, out of the house for something, he'd attempt to apologize, give Anna extra allowance or extra desert or something. He's a good man. When he's sober. Which is most of the time. I don't think he told my mom about Anna and Elsa kissing on purpose. I think Anna must have told him without realizing mom was home, that or he told her when he was drunk."

Adrianna nodded a little surprised at this new information about how Anna's mom was when she thought no one was watching and about Anna's father, as long as Adrianna had known the man he'd never drank anything stronger than coffee.

"Kicking Anna out had to be mom's idea. Dad would never have done that. Never. He knew the value of family. He's read the bible. All of it. He knows all the verses. He told me one time that only god is allowed to judge people. That's why he always carries around a handful of change to give to the homeless people downtown. He would have never tossed Anna out. One of the verses he made sure to get me to memorize as a child was First Timothy five-eight 'But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel*.' He told me that this was one of the reasons his mom didn't want to have to send her father to a nursing home as long as she still had the ability to take care of him. It's why I know he would never have kicked Anna out of his own choice. Have you talked to him yet?"

"I haven't."

"You should. But you'd have to get him away from mom somehow. I know he'll tell you the truth. He respects you."

Elsa walked back down stairs when Anna was asleep and came to the door. At first she hadn't wanted to leave Anna alone, but she had to know. When they were at the hospital, she'd overheard the doctor tell one of the nurses that Anna had remodeling on some of her bones, which she knew from tv meant that she'd broken those bones before and they healed. She had to know how. She had to ask.

"Reggie," Elsa said quietly not wanting to interrupt.

"Yes? Is Anna sleeping?" Reggie asked the concern clear on his voice.

"She is." Elsa smiled. "I just wanted to ask you a question."

"Sure, what is it, Els?"

"How did Anna get broken bones? When? I know it must have been a long time ago, because the doctor said the remodeling was old, but still."

"If you're worried that she got them from our parents don't be," Reggie said his voice soft and his smile reassuring. "That reckless goofball got them trying to ride her bike down the stairs at the park." Then with a more serious face said, "It's the scars that I'd think would worry you more than some old healed bone injuries."

"What scars?" Elsa tilted her head a little. She'd never noticed any scars on Anna, but Anna didn't generally let her see her in anything less than a t-shirt and shorts.

"If you don't know about them it's better you learn when Anna is ready for you to know. Just trust me on this. The scars are part of the reason why there's pictures in the book." Reggie looked at the table. "Can you two promise me that mom will never get to be around Anna again? I don't want her getting hurt anymore."

Adrianna nodded. "Of course. I don't plan on letting your mom anywhere near Anna."

Elsa smiled a little from the door. "I'm not going to ask Anna about the scars but I will remind her someday that they don't make her any less beautiful. And your mom isn't going to get near Anna. Not as long as I'm around. Though, Anna has nightmares about her. I'm not sure what I can do about that, but she's sleeping peacefully right now."

"Rub her back gently while she's falling asleep. When she was little that's the thing I found out worked the best to keep her from having bad dreams. See the more relaxed she is when she falls asleep and the less she's thinking about anything, the less likely it is for her to have a bad dream."

"That sounds surprisingly smart," Elsa said with a sleepy smile. "Will you write it down so I don't forget it?"

Reggie nodded and dug around in his pockets for a pen.

Adrianna looked over Elsa carefully. "Elsa, go get some sleep." She held up her hand when Elsa opened her mouth to protest. "Don't even think of saying you're not tired. I know how long you've been awake working on this essay or that news story or helping Anna. You need sleep."

Elsa sighed and yawned at the same time a strange combination that proved just how much she needed to sleep. "Okay mom, I'll sleep. But can you look over my essay and news story draft? I left them up on my laptop, which I'm pretty sure is still in the living room unless dad moved it. I'm afraid I might have missed some errors or typos because I'm tired."

"Of course I can," Adrianna said with a smile. "Come here."

Elsa sleepily walked over and gave her mom a hug. "I love you."

"I love you, too, now go sleep."

Elsa nodded once more but before she left the room she gave Reggie a hug, too. "Thank you for being such a great person."

*** (A.N. I grabbed this verse out of the King James version of the bible, most other versions of the bible replace infidel with unbeliever but the literal meaning is the same.)**


	15. Chapter 15

When Elsa had left the room, Reggie turned back to Adrianna. "Let me know when you need me to leave, I have the day off today though. So I'm in no rush if you aren't."

"There's no rush at all," Adrianna said with a smile. "There's something I've wanted to ask you. What are you going to do with that book now?"

"I'm keeping ahold of it, or I could give it to you," Reggie said simply. "If we need it to keep mom away from Anna, then one of us will have it. Even if we don't need it, we could probably blackmail mom with it."

"Blackmailing your mother is the absolute worst idea ever. It's almost as bad as fifty shades of gray. You'll only get yourself hurt, or worse," Adrianna said. To her it no longer seemed like she was talking to her exfriend's children, but a friend instead. "Think smarter, Reggie. There's got to be a better plan then blackmail."

"Okay, so maybe not blackmail," Reggie said with a chuckle. "But I'm still keeping or giving you the book. It needs to be kept safe until we can be completely sure that mom is never ever getting near Anna again."

Adrianna nodded. That book was probably the only evidence remaining that Anna didn't get her injuries through sheer clumsiness and stupidity. She honestly wished that things had worked out differently. That her friend hadn't changed. She wished she could have prevented this somehow, that it never would have come to this, but there wasn't really much use in thinking about things like that. They would never happen. Things would never be different. The past is unreversable. "I think you should keep the book. It'll do more good in your hands."

Reggie didn't quite understand what Adrianna meant by that but he silently nodded.

They sat together in a comfortable silence for a while. Then Karson sat up from where he was laying beside the table and tilted his head for a moment before growling menacingly and running to the front door barking loudly.

"Karson!" Adrianna shot out of her chair followed by Reggie and they both ran after Karson. "Move, Karson." Adrianna opened the door and he bolted out onto the porch.

By this time there was no one outside. As soon as Adrianna stepped onto the porch she knew exactly why Karson had started barking. Spray-painted in big red letters across the entire front of the house was the words 'fag family'.

"Who the fuck would do something like this?" Reggie spat angrily. "In the middle of the day?"

"I don't know," Adrianna sighed. She scratched Karson's head absentmindedly. "Should I call the police? I'm not sure if our homeowner's insurance covers vandalism."

"I would," Reggie said. "If it doesn't I'll help you clean it up."

Adrianna nodded. "I suppose I should. I'll go do that. Will you wait here with Karson while I go inside?"

"Of course." Reggie sat down on the steps beside Karson and started petting him. "You remember when I was Yvette don't you?" He asked the dog.

Karson wagged his tail and nuzzled Reggie's hand. This human was the same human who used to give him treats every time they met. Though this human looked different now, that did not mean they weren't the same. Karson knew this human was Anna's older sibling. Whether they were a man or a woman didn't matter as long as they still petted him, and they did. There was no reason for Karson not to still love Reggie. Though he was a little upset that this human had made Anna sad earlier, he knew he only did it because he cared so much about her.

Pretty soon Adrianna came back outside and sat down beside Karson and Reggie. "The police are on their way. This isn't going to be easy to explain to Anna," she sighed. "I promised her she'd be safe here. How am I supposed to do that if I don't even know who the enemy is?"

"The enemy," Reggie said. "Isn't a person. It's a system. A way of thinking. A cruel lie told by those who think they know better, who think their way is the only way. The enemy isn't the people, it's how they think. The enemy can be defeated, but it'll take longer than any of us have on this Earth. The enemy is bigotry and hatred. It's poorly disguised scapegoating. It's the thought that just because someone is different it means they're wrong."

"I can't protect her from a thought process, especially if it's in someone else's head." Another sigh. "The best I can do is make sure she knows she's free from that inside the house."

Reggie put a hand on Adrianna's shoulder. "That's all any of us can do really. We can try other things. We can try to change the world. We won't get it done. Not alone. Never alone. You need to remember Adrianna, you're not alone in this. You're not the only one looking out for Anna. We all are; you, me, Lukas, Elsa. You're not alone."

Adrianna gave a small smile. "You're right. About everything. I think what we need most is to make sure that Anna knows she's not alone. She had her world ripped out from under her. We need to help her build it back. It probably –"

A short whistle from the curb caught their attention. "Could you put your dog inside, please? I'm allergic." It was a police officer who came to investigate the vandalism.

"Yeah, no problem." Adrianna stood and opened the door. "Go Karson, check on Elsa and Anna."

Karson wagged his tail and headed inside and up the stairs.

The officer smiled. "Thank you." They walked up onto the porch and winced at the words on the wall. "That's harsh." They held out their hand for Adrianna. "I'm Officer Tammy Marx."

"Adrianna Arendelle," Adrianna said taking her hand with a firm handshake.

"I think we went to school together. Anyway, I'll need to ask you and…"

"Reggie."

"Reggie, a few questions." Officer Marx pulled a little notebook out of her pocket. "Did you see the vandals at all?"

Adrianna shook her head. "We didn't see anything. Karson, the dog, started barking and ran to the door. We followed him and walked out onto the porch and that's when we noticed the graffiti."

Officer Marx nodded. "Do you have any idea who might have done this or why?"

"None," Adrianna said. She really couldn't think of anyone in this neighborhood that would want to do anything to her family.

"People are cruel. Most don't like when someone or something is different. Whoever it was is probably upset that Adrianna actually loves, cares for, and supports her daughter and her girlfriend," Reggie said.

"As much as I hate it, you're probably right. Do you or any of your neighbors have security cameras?"

"If I may," a small voice said.

They looked around and Adrianna spotted a small girl walking around from beside the house, she had a few twigs in her hair.

"Clarissa? What are you doing here?" Adrianna said shocked. "Come up here, you have twigs in your hair."

"I heard Karson was back, I wanted to play with him," Clarissa said. "But when the big kids came over I hid in the bush. I thought maybe they wanted to play with Karson too, but they had the yucky smelling paint cans. They're never nice to me when I'm around. So I hid. I heard Jackson say 'this'll teach Elsa to reject me.' Then they painted something on the house. I don't know what it says 'cause I can't read yet, but I don't think it's good, or you wouldn't have called the polices on them."

"Jackson?" Officer Marx asked as Adrianna was gently picking twigs out of Clarissa's hair.

"He's a big bully," Clarissa said.

"He's a basketball player at the high school. One of Elsa's classmates. He lives down the street. Clarissa are you sure it was Jackson?"

"Yeah. I saw him. I didn't see any of them actually paint, but I saw them with the cans."

"Who are them?"

"Jackson, Ben, Max and Poncho," Clarissa said.

"Poncho?" Adrianna was confused. "Who's Poncho?"

"Poncho. You know. He's short and has a loud voice and a weird accent."

"Miguel. His name is Miguel."

"They call him Poncho."

"Alright, so it was Jackson, Ben, Max and Miguel. Their parents won't be happy to find out," Adrianna said.

"Do you know where they live? I can go talk to their parents right now," Officer Marx said.

"Let me write it down for you," Adrianna said.

Officer Marx nodded and handed over her notebook and pen. Adrianna wrote down the four boys addresses and made a note that Miguel's parents didn't speak much English.

"I will return," Officer Marx said taking her notebook back.

"We'll be here," Adrianna said.

Officer Marx nodded and headed off to talk to the parents of the boys who the girl had said were the vandals.

"Does your mom know you're here?" Adrianna asked Clarissa with quite a bit of concern.

"Ask her," Clarissa responded pointing to her mom sitting on the porch of the house next door.

Adrianna nodded and walked to the edge of the porch. "Mary!" She called out, cupping her hands around her mouth to make sure she could be heard. "Do you know where Clarissa is?"

"Of course I do, Adrianna. I may be blind but I know my child. She's on your porch wondering why Karson is inside instead of in the backyard where he normally is," Mary called back.

"Just making sure," Adrianna called. "Mothers worry about things like this you know."

"I do." Mary smiled.

Adrianna nodded and walked back over to Clarissa. "Karson's inside because the nice police officer is allergic to dogs and asked us to put him inside."

"Aww. That's too bad, I'm sure she'd like Karson if she wasn't allergic, I gotta go now though, it's almost time for daddy to come home." Clarissa bounced down the steps. "Bye-bye Misses Elsa's mom. And bye-bye Mister," she said turning and waving at them before heading back to her house.

"Bye Clarissa. Have a good day," Adrianna called after her.

They waited on the porch for about half an hour before Officer Marx returned, with Jackson's parents. "The other three boys acted convinced that Jackson would have gotten them in trouble with the basketball coach if they didn't do what he wanted them to. Jackson's parents wish to discuss this with you."

"Adrianna," Jackson's mom said. "We know our son isn't exactly the nicest boy, but we are trying to get him into college. If only so he'll have to grow up. Let us cover the damages, whatever your homeowners won't but will you please consider not pressing charges. We haven't seen Jackson all day, but when he comes back he'll find all the things that he enjoys, like his PlayStation and his skateboard, that we paid for gone."

"You're going to sell his stuff?" Adrianna asked skeptically.

"No, we're going to put it in storage. If he does something like this again, then we'll be behind whoever he does it to on pressing charges and then we'll sell his things. We did pay for them after all."

Adrianna thought for a moment. "I suppose I could not press charges this one time. But, I want you two to do me a favor."

"Anything," Jackson's father said.

"Keep Jackson away from my house. He's not a nice person and I don't want him around Elsa as long as I can help it. She's told me more than once that he doesn't take no very well and she's a bit afraid of him. I'm just trying to keep my child and her friend safe."

Jackson's parents nodded. "No problem. We'll do our best to keep him away from your house and away from Elsa."

"Thank you."

Officer Marx stuck her little notebook back in her pocket. "If you're not going to be pressing charges then my work here is done. I will have to do the paperwork and file the report though. You can request a copy from the station for your insurance, if it's needed."

"Thank you, so much officer," Adrianna said.

"Just doing my job, ma'am," Officer Marx said. "Have a good day."

"You too."

Officer Marx shook Adrianna's hand then left.

"I suppose I have to call my insurance now, unless someone here knows how to remove spray-paint from glass and other paint," Adrianna said.

"Actually," Jackson's dad said. "I do. We'll not me, but one of the guys I work with does. He specializes in removing graffiti. I'll call him. And we'll pay, right dear?"

Jackson's mom nodded. "Of course we'll pay."

Adrianna smiled. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. It's the least we can do to make up for what our son did. We should go now, and put his stuff away before he gets back," Jackson's mom said.

"And I need to call Bob."

They each shook Adrianna's hand thanking her once more for not pressing charges then left.

Adrianna took a deep breath then sighed. "I hope nothing else happens today. God how am I going to explain this to Lukas, Elsa and Anna?"

Reggie placed a gentle hand on Adrianna's shoulder. "A jerk with a few cans of spray-paint and some loyal friends, graffiti'd the front of the house in revenge for Elsa not wanting to cheat on Anna. Or some boys don't take no for an answer. Either should work."

Adrianna sighed again.

"I know what you need. Tea. Some nice relaxing tea. You have some in the kitchen don't you?" Reggie said.

"I do," Adrianna said with a smile. "How is it you always know the right answer?"

"I survived living with my mother. I know how to deal with all sorts of emotional pain. I'm really smart. If I didn't know the right answer I'd never have gotten my job with the FBI. Let's go make some tea."

Adrianna nodded following Reggie back inside. Silent for a moment before it dawned on her. "You work for the FBI!?"


	16. Chapter 16

Reggie winced. "I shouldn't have said that. I mean it's not classified. But no one knows."

"I know," Adrianna said.

"You do now. No one else does," Reggie replied. "No one else can."

"Why not, are you like a secret agent or something," Adrianna asked.

"No nothing like that. My fiancée knows that I work there. But she doesn't know what I do. She can't know. No one can. And I'm not telling her or you. I don't want anyone to be put in danger because of what I do."

Adrianna nodded. "I'm not going to ask what it is you do. I just want to say, if you ever think any of us, are in danger because of your job please tell me."

Reggie nodded. "It's not a likely occurrence, but I would definitely tell you first."

They headed into the kitchen together.

Meanwhile upstairs, Elsa had just finished taking a shower and changed into a clean fluffy pair of pajamas. She was working on blow-drying her hair when Karson came into her room.

"Hey buddy," she said quietly as he walked over to her. "Did mom send you to check on me?"

Karson nodded his doggy head and licked Elsa's hand. He knew she was supposed to be sleeping, but he also knew that her hair was wet and she couldn't sleep like that. He'd only been home for two days, but he was already readjusted. It felt almost like he'd never gotten lost in the first place.

Elsa smiled. She loved that Karson had finally been found. She'd been worried sick about him. "Karson, can you keep a secret?"

Karson tilted his head but nodded.

"Jackon's been bullying me at school again. This last time he threatened Anna. Karson, what am I going to do? I can't tell anyone but you. He threatened to tell the whole school that we're dating."

Karson growled a little, but was confused. The way he saw it the other kids probably already knew. Or at least their parents and teachers would.

"When I told him that it didn't matter who knew, he threatened to make Anna jealous somehow, probably by telling her that I slept with him or something. Karson, he said he'd do anything to tear us apart. He wants to drive her back to Mikael."

Karson growled menacingly. He remembered that name. He never met the boy himself, but he knew that he was the reason that Anna refused to go to the mall for almost a year.

"Don't worry Karson, I'm not going to let that happen. Somehow, I'll keep it from happening. Anna doesn't need anything like this. She's got enough on her plate. He was here earlier. Jackson, wasn't he?"

Karson nodded.

"I thought I saw him. What was he doing down there? Something not good. He's not a good boy. A dangerous boy. Hmmm. Karson, how hard do you think it would be to convince the principal … no this won't work? I know Karson, give mom this," she turned to her desk where she was still trying to blow-dry her hair and very carefully wrote a little note asking for hot cocoa to be put in her and Anna's lunches for tomorrow. "Then go check on Anna and come back here if she's fine."

Karson let Elsa attach the note to his collar then left the room. Elsa had been trying to get her hair dry for almost twenty minutes. With as much hair as she had it wasn't an easy task. Still, she couldn't sleep with her hair wet. She brushed her hair out and tried her best to get it dry. Maybe if she opened her window, and let the air from outside help, then it would dry faster? She switched off the dryer for a moment then walked over to her window and opened it. The warm breeze that came in when she did that made her smile. She grabbed up the towel off the edge of her bed. A combination, perhaps. She decided to try it. She took part of her hair in the towel and started drying it. This did seem to help, so she kept it up, occasionally going back to the hair dryer and after another ten or fifteen minutes her hair was completely dry.

She thought about shutting the window and when she turned from her desk after turning off and unplugging the hair dryer she noticed that Karson was sitting on her bed. "Anna's okay then?" she asked quietly.

Karson nodded. He laid down then rolled over and wiggled hopping she'd come scratch his belly. Elsa chuckled and walked over to him. She sat down beside him and gently scratched his belly and underside. He wiggled happily and smiled a doggy smile. He was happy to be making Elsa happy. He knew somehow that him being around made her smile. It was an instinct. He wanted nothing more in his life than to be making Elsa happy.

Elsa smiled and laid down beside Karson. He rolled over and put a paw on her shoulder. She deserved to sleep. He wasn't tired though. But he'd stay beside her as long as she needed. That's what best friends are for after all. Elsa would have gone back to Anna. She would have, Kason knew. But she hadn't slept in three days because of school work and worrying about him and Anna. She didn't have the energy to make it back to Anna. Anna didn't mind though, Karson decided. She was sleeping fine, not twitchy or mumbly. She didn't seem too distressed to be alone, perhaps she was too comfortable in her bed to realize that Elsa wasn't in there.

Karson smiled and nuzzled Elsa's neck for a moment. He waited for her to fall asleep before he carefully got off her bed. He pulled the blanket up over her then headed out of the room to check on Anna again.

Anna was sleeping rather peacefully in her bed. She wasn't tossing or turning, the one time she tried her leg hurt too much and she decided not to. Karson stared in at her for a few minutes, before he heard the click of the front door shutting. He headed downstairs wondering who it was that had entered or left.

"Karson," Lukas said with a smile as he sat his bag down by the door. "Come here boy." He held his arms out to give the dog a hug.

Karson bounded over to him happily.

"How's my girls?" Lukas asked with a smile.

Karson simply wagged his tail to show they were fine. He backed away and headed to the kitchen with Lukas following. Reggie and Adrianna were still in there discussing something and Karson walked over to his food bowl, which was empty. He put a paw on it and whined a little.

"Okay, Karson," Lukas said with a smile, choosing to ignore the man his wife was talking to for a moment. He walked over to Karson and opened the cabinet to get to Karson's food. He then scooped out some of the food and filled up Karson's bowl. Then he put the food away and turned to his wife and her friend at the table. "Good afternoon," he said.

"You're home early, aren't you?" Adrianna asked with a smile.

"Just a few minutes, there was less traffic than usual."

"Oh, Lukas, this is Anna's brother, Reggie," Adrianna said casually motioning to him.

"I thought she had a sister," Lukas said only slightly confused. Was he wrong? Though the face did look similar.

"She did," Reggie said. "Not anymore."

Lukas was still slightly confused. What did this mean? Was Reggie once a girl? That would make sense as to why he wasn't Anna's sister anymore. But that's a rude question to ask. "How long've you been here today, Reggie?"

"Since ten, sir," Reggie said. "I came over because Adrianna called me last night. I'm the only family Anna has left that hasn't disowned her. Well blood family anyway. I wanted to see her. To help her anyway I could."

Lukas smiled. "That's exactly what I hoped to hear. Anna could use more people like you in her life."

"Thank you, sir. I try the best I can."

Reggie's repeated use of sir caused Lukas to chuckle. The boy must have been used to calling his superiors that, but he wasn't his superior. "There's no need to call me sir. You probably have a higher rank than I do."

"I don't work for the military. Do you honestly think they'd let me get away with this color hair if I did?"

Lukas chuckled more. "I suppose not, but even so, any job where you call the people above you sir on a regular basis is higher ranked than mine."

"I forget exactly, what is it that you do anyway?" Reggie asked. "I have a government job." It wasn't the whole truth but it wasn't a lie either.

"I mostly just marry people. Occasionally I also do the other things that are required of a judge, but there's not a lot of trial crime in Arendelle, and I'm only a small court judge anyway. I suppose that's also a type of government job isn't it?"

Reggie nodded. "Unless you're marrying people illegally. If that's the case you might need to have a word with my boss," he chuckled.

Lukas smiled and walked over to the coffee pot. "It's empty," he said a little sadly. "Oh well, perhaps I shall have some milk instead."

Adrianna smiled. "Or you could make some coffee?"

"Yes, but that requires effort, and I'm afraid I have no effort left after that guy at work today. Can you believe this man tried to argue his way out of a DUI ticket by saying he got drunk and forgot he wasn't supposed to drive while drunk?"

Adrianna and Reggie both started laughing. "He wasn't serious was he?" Adrianna asked.

"He was. As serious as Elsa is about her newspaper reports."

"He can't possibly have believed that would be a good defense. Like really," Reggie chuckled.

"He did. He seemed to think it was the best defense ever. He tried arguing that he shouldn't be allowed to be charged for the crime, when he didn't even remember ever leaving the parking lot."

"He wasn't the brightest bulb in the pack was he?" Adrianna said. This would be entertaining if that wasn't such a serious thing. "He could have killed someone."

That sobered the mood a little. "He could have," Lukas said seriously. "He didn't, but he could have."

"He didn't get off did he?"

"Hell no. I wasn't about to let him slip with a defense like that. All he needed to do was pay the fine and hear his sentencing, but he tried to argue and that caused him to get a contempt of court charge placed on top. He wasn't a very quiet arguer either. He was loud and obnoxious." Lukas sighed and walked to the fridge to get the milk out, then grabbed a glass out of the cabinet above the sink and sat down with both at the table. He poured some milk into the glass. "Some people will never learn to stop talking."

Karson looked up from his now empty food bowl, Lukas seemed sad now. Which really confused him. Lukas wasn't normally sad. Karson walked over to him and placed his head on Lukas' knee. Lukas smiled at that. He put the cap back on the milk jug when he was done pouring and gently scratched Karson's head with his free hand. "I don't suppose you know why some people are stupid do you, Karson?"

Karson just tilted his head, it wasn't normal for someone to ask him questions when other people were in the room. But then again, Lukas was sad, or tired. Everyone seemed a little tired to him.

"No, you wouldn't know. But maybe you're smarter than we think you are," Lukas said. "Which would be saying a lot, because I think you're pretty smart. When do you need to get home Reggie? It wouldn't be a bother to us if you stuck around for dinner. We could watch a movie or something."

Adrianna smiled. "You could take a nap," she said to Lukas. "You need it." Then she turned to Reggie. "I wouldn't mind meeting your fiancée if she's free. Perhaps you could see if she'd like to come have dinner with us?"

"I'd love to. I'll go see if she's up to it. She might be busy with grading." Reggie stood up and stretched. "I'll go talk to her, hopefully she's up for it and we'll both return here, say seven thirty?"

"That sounds wonderful," Adrianna said with a smile as she got up and hugged Reggie. Lukas managed a nice handshake and a caring nod. Then Reggie left.


	17. Chapter 17

"I'm just a little confused," Lukas said after Reggie was gone. "Did Reggie used to be Yvette or what?"

Adrianna smiled a little, which comforted Lukas in a way. "He did. He's transgender Lukas."

"Oh," Lukas said most of his confusion gone. "That makes sense, I don't know why I didn't think of that to begin with."

"Probably because you're tired Lukas, go sleep some. I'll handle making dinner. You'll feel better after you nap."

Lukas sighed and nodded, Adrianna was right of course, she was always right. "Are Elsa and Anna okay?" He decided that he had to know how they were before he went to take a nap. He was a grown adult, but Adrianna was right that a nap would make him feel better, he could only assume that's what Elsa and Anna were doing that could possibly have them not arguing or at least talking about the words that were painted on the front of the house, which he did wonder about.

"They're fine, sleeping some before dinner. Please don't tell them about the vandalism. Jackon's parents are taking care of it. I made them promise that if they did their best to keep him away from our house and Elsa and Anna as much as possible then I wouldn't press charges on him for doing the vandalizing," Adrianna said. She placed a hand on Lukas' shoulder, not having sat back down yet. "Lukas, I'm afraid things might end up getting nasty because of that boy. I got a call the other day from one of Elsa's teachers saying she overheard Jackon and Elsa arguing after lunch. She said she didn't know what the argument was about but when Elsa came back to class she looked like she'd been crying. I'm not sure how to ask Elsa about this, I don't want her to think we don't respect her privacy."

"Perhaps after my nap, I can come up with a plan," Lukas said. "I fear the same thing, darling. Things are going to get worse before they get better."

Adrianna nodded and leaned over and kissed Lukas' cheek before he got up and headed off to sleep for a while.

The sound of a bell ringing broke through the dark haze of sleep as Anna was lying in bed. She blinked, sleepily trying to figure out what was making the sound. She rolled over carefully on the bed trying to pinpoint the location of the bell. When she did that, however, she felt something slide down the pillow and thump against her head gently. _What the?_

She reached up and picked up the thing and the bell sound came again, this time she knew it was from the thing in her hand. _Elsa's phone? But why?_ She didn't know for sure why Elsa would have left her phone by her head or when, but she knew the sound had to be an alarm, because Elsa's ringtone was Beethoven's Fifth. She looked at the screen and blinked a few times to clear her head of the fuzziness of sleep. Sure enough the screen was telling her that the alarm was going off because it was seven pm. _Seven pm? What a weird time for an alarm._

She hadn't noticed Elsa standing by the door with Karson and she almost didn't remember falling asleep at all. She did feel well rested though, extremely well rested. She felt better than she had in a long time. Even despite her leg and hip being sore from the hospital visit. Some sleep was better than no sleep, she felt like she'd been asleep for days, but a few hours was good. Perhaps after dinner she could get Elsa to tell her something, she wasn't sure what she wanted to know, but she wanted to hear Elsa talk to her.

"Hey, dork. Get up, it's almost dinner time."

Not the words she wanted to hear Elsa say, but that was close enough. She turned her head to look at Elsa then wiggled the phone in her hand. "Do I have to give this back or can I play flappy bird?"

"You have to get out of bed," Elsa said. "I don't care if you play flappy bird when you're up and dressed. Get up. Your brother is bringing his fiancée to dinner. You'll wanna look nice."

"I don't do nice, Els. You know that," Anna said only slightly sarcastically as she got out of the bed, careful not to hit her leg against it.

"You'll do better than pajamas," Elsa said with mock severity.

"Or what? You'll tell my mom?" Anna said with indignation.

"Or you'll have to deal with my mom," Elsa replied.

Karson had been looking between the two knowing neither was mad at the other and that both would be happy with Anna just changing into something that wasn't her pajamas. He walked over to Anna's dresser and sat down, knowing that Elsa's mom wouldn't be as gentle about this if Anna tried to come to dinner in her pajamas when they had company.

"Okay Karson, I guess I'll change into normal people clothes. Even though my pajamas are more comfortable," Anna said walking over and scratching Karson's head.

Karson smiled a doggy smile and wagged his tail. He wanted to be sure that Anna was happy, and she did seem to be feeling at least somewhat better than she did yesterday. Her hair really seemed to need a thorough brushing and from where he was he could tell she needed a bath, but it didn't really bother him, she'd do the thing. It might just take a while. She'd been through a rough time. It would take her a while to feel normal again.

Anna dug through the drawers noticing that about half the clothes in there were hers and about half were old clothes of Elsa's. "Elsa your mom gave me some of your old clothes. You don't mind do you?"

"Anna, I wouldn't have boxes of clothes set aside in my closet labeled, 'for Anna if she needs them'. If I minded giving them to you. She probably just opened one of them and put them in place," Elsa said walking over and putting a hand gently on Anna's shoulder. "If you mind, however, we could go shopping."

"No. I don't want to go to the mall," Anna said, she was still weary of that place as long as Mikael still worked in the food court.

"Did I say the mall?" Elsa asked gently starting to massage Anna's shoulders to help her relax. "I was thinking Walmart, or maybe Goodwill. There's usually some really cute clothes at Goodwill and Walmart. We could go to Belk or Forever 21? There's a couple of them that aren't in the mall."

Anna was about to respond when Adrianna called from the bottom of the stairs. "Dinner is in ten minutes, you'd both better be down here or I'm you can't have any of the dessert."

Elsa stepped away from Anna and smiled. "Just put anything on really. I promise you'll look great."

Anna nodded and selected something to wear and was very careful when changing into it, she winced when the cloth brushed over her bruises and stitches, but she wasn't hurting too bad. Mostly just mildly uncomfortable. When she was finished she scratched Karson's head and walked over to the door with Elsa close behind her.

"Should I have brushed my hair?"

"No, that's impressive, and it would take you an hour to brush it."

Anna nodded with a smile, knowing Elsa was right. "Ready to face my brother's fiancée?"

"The better question is do you think she's ready to face us?"

Anna just shrugged and walked out the door. "Didn't Reggie say she's a band teacher? Maybe you can impress her with your knowledge of Mozart?"

"We'd probably be better off letting you impress her with your violin playing."

Anna giggled at that as they walked into down the stairs. "Honestly Elsa, does it look like I brought my violin home from school?"

They heard the light sounds of conversation from the dining room…

"One time one of the students I was teaching when I was still in college, when asked for tips on how slow bowing could be accomplished replied with a genius response…"

Elsa ran into the room. "Bow slower," she said. She'd heard the story before.

Janine and Reggie both turned around to see Elsa standing there. Anna was close behind her.

"Ms. Neprud?" Anna asked rather shocked. "Reggie why didn't you tell me you were engaged to my"-emphasis on that word because she was so shocked—"band teacher?"

"Well," Reggie said seriously. Janine looked at him wondering what he had to say about this situation. Mostly wondering the same as Anna, why he'd never told her he was related to one of her students. "It's because I didn't know. Anna, please understand as much as I love you, and as much as I tried to be a part of your life, I had no idea you went to the school that she teaches at."

"I bet you also didn't know that I play violin," Anna said walking around the table to take her seat.

Elsa was still standing not exactly sure why, until she realized, "Mom where's dad?"

"I'm not sure? I woke him up from his nap, three times in the last hour, I'll go see if he fell back asleep," Adrianna said standing up. "Play nice." She headed out of the dining room.

Elsa walked around and sat back down at the table beside Anna. "So, other than planning to get married, what's new?"

"Well, the administration's reaction to the governor's speech actually," Janine said. "You two are some of the best students in the school, but there's not really much the administration can do to protect you two from the hateful words of other students when you go back."

Elsa and Anna looked at each other for a moment unsure of exactly what that meant.

"But don't let that make you think the teachers aren't going to do everything in our power to keep you safe."

Elsa picked up her fork and balanced it on the edge of her cup absentmindedly, she wasn't quite sure what the teachers could do that the administration couldn't. "I'm confused."

"That's to be expected," Janine said. "Don't be frightened if you come back to school Tuesday and some of your classes have new seating arrangements."

"How's that supposed to help?" Anna asked. "They don't bully us in class." Then she added quietly, "most of the time."

"We aren't entirely sure it will," Janine said. "I know the band seats won't change until possibly after the playing test on Thursday, same with the orchestra seats."

"Does that mean we're testing for chair positions?" Anna asked. "As in I have a shot at first chair and the solo this time?"

"As long as you're at school on Thursday yes. It's possible Elsa, that you might lose your chair position. I doubt it though. Jessica seems content being second chair."

"It's not whether or not she's content. It's about how well she plays. That's what you've always told us. It doesn't matter how content we are with our chairs they can change depending on how well or poorly we play," Elsa said.

"I do say that and it is true," Janine said. "But you and she tied last time, and she asked to be second chair instead of having two 'first chair' players."

"And you let her?"

"Elsa, understand something, some people are just more comfortable not being the best in a group. Some musicians play better knowing they're not expected to be the best of all, just the best of themselves." Janine smiled at her.

Elsa nodded. She could understand that, she'd often wondered if the pressure the rest of the band put on her to be the best in the class was worth it. She loved playing her flute but she really had to wonder if the joy she got from playing was worth having all her achievements invalidated every time she did something wrong. Like playing a wrong note or, like she did in contest once, accidentally sneezed in the middle of a song.

"Elsa, what are you thinking about?" Anna whispered.

Elsa looked at her. "Just band."

"It's not 'just band'," Anna said. "And you know it. Tell me."

"I was wondering if it was worth it."

Janine and Reggie shared a glance as Adrianna walked back in with Lukas.

"If what part was worth it," Anna asked.

"If being as good as I am is worth it, when it means that everyone else in the band puts so much pressure on me to be perfect. I hit a wrong note in rehearsal the other day and Tiffany said that I knew better than that and she couldn't understand how I made it to first chair and most of the solo parts when I couldn't hit the notes correctly," Elsa sighed. "I know what she said shouldn't bother me, it's the only wrong note I've hit the entire time we've been working on the piece. But they all say things like that all the time. It hurts."

"Elsa," Janine said. "If there's one thing I learned in music school that it's important for all musicians to know, it's that sometimes your fellow band members aren't good people to judge your performance skills. Sometimes they're not good people at all. Sometimes they're jealous that you're better than them and will find any way they know how to make you feel like shit, because somehow it makes them feel better about themselves. Trust me, their opinions aren't worth questioning yourself over."

"Speaking of people's opinions," Lukas said sitting down finally. "What's your opinion of Jackson?"


	18. Chapter 18

"Are you asking me, or Elsa?" Janine asked, a little confused. "It's not professional of me to discuss my students outside of school."

"I know," Lukas said.

"Is there a particular reason you asked?"

"It's not that important," Lukas said. "Just a fatherly curiosity."

Elsa frowned something wasn't right about this. Her dad would never ask about Jackson if he didn't have a really good reason. "What's the real reason that you're asking?" she asked rather firmly. She didn't believe for a minute that this was a fatherly curiosity thing.

"You tell me, Elsa."

"Ms. Dana called you didn't she?"

"I told her not to," Janine said. "I told her we could handle this without going to your parents."

"It doesn't matter," Elsa said. "It's not important. Jackson is just an asshole, that's all."

"He's not just an asshole Elsa, that's the problem here," Janine said. "He's an emotionally manipulative narcissist, I know this is wrong of me to say, and please don't tell administration, I'm speaking as your sister-in-law Anna, not your teacher. He's the kind of person who can't handle rejection like a normal human."

"You say that like you've dealt with someone like him before."

"I have, I also have a friend, who's told me they don't approve of him. That's how I know this isn't a case of him just being an asshole." Janine sighed. "There's no easy way to handle this. Elsa, Anna, tell me what you think of him, honestly."

"He told me," Anna said, looking to Elsa for a moment. She'd been expecting her to be the one talk about him first, but she was just sitting there a little stiffly, looking a little paler than she normally did. "That there's a reason he doesn't talk to people."

"Really? What reason would that be?" Janine asked, she noticed that Elsa was trembling slightly, the same way she did on stage when she had the big solo in a piece and knew all eyes were on her.

"He said they're beneath him. That's why he don't talk to them." Anna looked down at her hands, like she'd just said something wrong and she regretted it. "He's weird, he doesn't show emotions, I'm not sure he knows how."

"He knows exactly what he's doing," Elsa said, surprising Anna. "He knows. That's why he does it." She didn't look at anyone though, just sort of stared at her plate as she said that. So far she hadn't actually eaten anything since he'd been brought up. Her body wouldn't let her. Instead she did something she didn't do often anymore, something that immediately told Anna something was wrong. She started playing with her hair absentmindedly.

"Elsa are you okay?" Anna asked. "You seem tense."

"I'm perfectly fine. Anna, I need you to do your best to stay away from him." She was trying to protect her, and her words came out more guarded than she wanted them to. She wasn't showing the emotions the others wanted her to, she knew that, but if she didn't keep herself calm she couldn't be sure what she would say to them and she didn't want to tell them what was really bothering her about this whole thing, she was scared to.

"Why?" Anna asked indignantly. The way Elsa said that made her feel like Elsa was hiding something because she thought she couldn't handle hearing it, and that made her mad, she wasn't a little kid she didn't need to be protected from the truth.

"Because he's an asshole, Anna." She stopped playing with her hair and put her hands on the table. She looked regal, almost like a queen forbidding someone from doing something. It was a rather menacing look, the only thing that detracted from the menace and regality, and showed Anna and the rest of them that Elsa was hiding something was her eyes, they could clearly see the fear and pain in them.

"He's not hurting anyone Elsa," Anna pointed out, hoping to trick Elsa into saying what was really on her mind.

"That's what he wants you to think," Elsa said rather calmly. Anna frowned at that she was hoping to crack Elsa's normally calm shell and find out exactly what was bothering her.

"Who is he hurting?"

Elsa shook her head, not sure who asked it, but she wasn't about to tell anyone. Jackson would kill her, she was sure of that. Instead of answering she just leaned over her plate and tried to act like everything was fine, like this conversation wasn't hurting her. She didn't notice the tears that started sliding down her cheek as whoever asked once more who he was hurting. She tried to pick up her fork to poke at the food on her plate, she wasn't really hungry anymore, but she couldn't. Her hand was trembling too much. After that she didn't hear anything anyone said to her, she was scared. She was so scared and she didn't even fully understand why. She tried to focus on something, she picked a spot on her plate and tried her best to keep it in focus, she found it next to impossible, her vision kind of went fuzzy. The next thing she fully realized she was on the floor with Anna and Janine kneeling beside her, and Reggie, Adrianna and Lukas standing a little to the side looking really worried and talking quietly among themselves.

"Elsa, can you hear me?" It was Anna, she sounded scared.

Elsa nodded fearfully and sat up. "What happened?"

"That," Janine said, "was some kind of panic attack. Elsa, you don't need to keep silent about what's going on. Jackson is hurting you isn't he?"

She nodded fearfully once more, too scared to keep it to herself anymore.

"Why are you afraid of telling us?"

"He said he'd…"she bit back her words unable to get them to form in her head properly. She was still trembling, any sentiment of calm she'd had before was gone now.

"He'd what Elsa?" It was a very gentle prod, Janine had dealt with things like this before and she knew prodding too much into it would cause Elsa to shut down completely. She was careful not to touch Elsa more than just putting a hand on her shoulder reassuringly, on Elsa's opposite side Anna did the same.

Elsa's face paled a little and new tears found their way down her cheek. "He's trying to drive me and Anna apart. I don't know what it is about him, but he wants to drive Anna back to Mikael. He knows Mikael hurt Anna, he wants her back with him, I don't know why. He wants me. I told him no. I told him I wasn't going to let him hurt Anna. He said if I told anyone about how he is when we're alone and no one can see us, that he'd … I can't say it," she was terrified, and she could barely get the words out past her tears.

Anna stared at Janine for a moment, she was confused and she was angry. She didn't give two shits either way anymore if anyone hurt her, she'd had pain her entire life and she was used to it, but how dare anyone hurt Elsa in any way. She didn't speak though, she was wondering what Janine was thinking. As far as she knew Elsa, of the two of them, had never had a panic attack before. She didn't know how to help with the after effects of them, but she knew showing Elsa that she was angry wouldn't help anything.

"It's okay, Elsa. You don't have to say it. What you've already said is enough. It's all going to be okay," Janine said.

"No it's not," Elsa said shaking her head.

Janine looked to the others standing a little ways away. None of them said anything, they weren't quite sure what to say.

"Elsa," Anna said gently, trying to mitigate her anger to help her. "You told me yesterday that everything was going to be fine because you wouldn't let it not be fine. This is the same thing. Everything is going to be fine, because we won't let it not be. We aren't going to let him hurt you. We aren't going to let him tear us apart. That much I can guarantee." She gently pulled Elsa into a hug letting her cry onto her shoulder.

Karson whined under the table gently, none of them remembered him coming down, but he must have followed Elsa and Anna down, because here he was. He was scared. His humans were hurting. First it was Anna, and now it was Elsa. This wasn't supposed to happen. They were supposed to be happy. They deserved to be happy. He wondered maybe if he went and got Tesla off the back porch if they'd be happier. He knew, in his husky mind, that Elsa and Anna were hurting because of Jackson, and were Jackson here he'd bite him.

Anna gently motioned for Karson to come out from under the table, and he did. She patted the floor beside her and he sat there, he placed a paw on Elsa's leg gently. It pained him to see Elsa crying, she didn't do that often. He knew that. He also knew that her falling out of the chair like she had, meant that she hadn't taken her medicine today.

He whined once more then nuzzled Anna's face and ran up to Elsa's room. He nudged open the drawer of Elsa's desk and put his front paws on the top of the desk so he could get in and get the bottle. Then he nudged the door shut and brought the bottle down to Adrianna and put it in her hand.

"Elsa," Adrianna said looking down at the bottle in her hand and walking over to her. "Did you take your medicine today?"

Elsa shook her head against Anna's shoulder, she was still crying. Somewhere between bringing Anna home from the hospital and waking up for dinner, she just forgot to. She didn't mean to forget, it just sort of happened.

Adrianna gently put a hand on Elsa's back urging her to lean back enough that she could take the pill as Janine got Elsa's glass of milk off the table. When that was done, Adrianna set both the pill bottle and the glass on the floor and gently hugged Elsa.

"I'm so sorry, baby," she whispered in Elsa's ear.

"Don't be sorry, mama, it's not your fault," Elsa whispered back as she hugged her back.

When they parted, Elsa sniffled a little then looked around at everyone. "I'm sorry I ruined dinner."

"Elsa no, you didn't ruin dinner," Anna said, taking her hands. "You didn't ruin anything."

"But I upset you," Elsa said. "Don't think I didn't notice."

"You didn't upset me," Anna said bringing Elsa's hand up to her lips and giving it a gentle kiss. "Jackson upset me, by hurting you. You didn't do anything wrong."

"I did though," Elsa said. "If I hadn't said anything you wouldn't have gotten upset."

"Elsa, I was upset the moment Jackson was mentioned. Just like you. He's a monster. You are not the reason I am upset. Please try to understand that. Besides, Karson has something for you." Anna was the only one that noticed that Karson had left the room and came back, with Tesla.

Tesla used to be Anna's kitten before her parents kicked her out. When that happened, Anna had brought Tesla over to Elsa's house and dropped her off. Now Tesla lived here permanently, but she still remembered who her human servant was. She walked up, her fluffy dusty brown tail swishing back and forth happily. Then she stepped up onto Elsa's lap and laid down. She mewed happily. Karson had told her in his doggy way that the humans needed the comfort of her royal fluffiness and she was more than happy to oblige. After all, if she ignored them she might not get tuna after they finished dinner.

"Hi, Tesla," Elsa said with a sniffle, and petted the fluffy cat smiling when she started purring.

"Are we gonna finish eating though?" Lukas asked, "or should I go ahead and put the left overs away?"

"I'm not really hungry anymore," Elsa said still petting Tesla. Karson laid down beside her.

"I could use a little more food," Anna said standing up. "Elsa, even if you're not hungry you need to eat. You haven't eaten much and you need to eat more. Please Elsa, at least try."

Elsa nodded. "Okay, I'll try." She gently picked up Tesla and moved over to sit in her chair again. Then put Tesla back on her lap. "Oh by the way, Ms. Neprud, whatever happened to those friends of yours you always talk about when we're not doing things?"

"Well, Kayla's also a band and orchestra teacher, she doesn't live too far away either. Mattie is a chorus teacher she's a little further away. Becca's a doctor. The friend I mentioned earlier asked me to not talk about her by name to my students, she doesn't want anyone who isn't a legal adult being able to contact her about her novels that could actually get to her house," Janine said using her fingers to keep track of her friends as she moved back to her seat while naming them off.

"But that one has met Jackson?" Elsa asked, thinking that might mean that friend was also a teacher or perhaps lived in this neighborhood.

"Yes she has. She's met you too," Janine said. She hoped that if Elsa managed to figure out exactly who her friend was that she'd respect their privacy.

"Was it that cutie with the purple hair who came to the school one day during band and sat in the corner writing because 'she just needed to be with someone she trusted and she couldn't disturb her girlfriend at her work'?" Elsa asked thinking about people she knew she'd met that would have also met Jackson and knew Janine.

"Yes," Janine nodded.

"Oh cool," Elsa said with a slight smile. "Will you tell her I like her hair?" She asked as she picked up her fork to try and eat some of the food on her plate.

"Yeah, I can do that."

Everyone was sitting at the table again now, and Adrianna had put Elsa's glass back in front of her. Lukas struck up a light conversation with Reggie and then Anna was talking to Adrianna and Janine while Elsa slowly started eating the rice on her plate, counting the number of mushrooms she came across as she went. She'd gotten to twelve mushrooms when Karson ran out from under the table to the front door, barking and growling, and was followed shortly by Tesla hissing.

Then there was a knock on the door.

"I'll go get it," Elsa said. "It should be UPS the new charger I ordered for my laptop." She stood up and went to the door.

None of them at the table thought anything about it, hearing the door open then shut quickly. They just assumed Elsa stepped out on the porch to keep Karson from biting the delivery person. Until five minutes later, Karson was still barking and Elsa had not returned.


	19. Chapter 19

Anna sat at the table for only a few minutes after Elsa should have come back from collecting the delivery. Then she pushed her chair back and stood up, ignoring the pain in her leg as she did so. There was no reason it should be taking this long, she decided. "Something's not right," she said.

Adrianna nodded and stood up with her. Karson was still barking and he'd never barked at delivery people before, so there was no real reason for him to have started that now. They both walked to the door, Adrianna shooing Karson and Tesla away before opening it. Immediately they knew they shouldn't have let Elsa get the door, because when they opened it she was gone.

"Elsa?" Anna asked, a slight panic setting into her voice as she stepped out onto the porch. There was no response, which just made Anna's panic rise. "Elsa?" she called out. She didn't want to believe it, she couldn't understand where Elsa could have gone. She hadn't heard a car or a truck, which meant that it couldn't have been a delivery person at the door in the first place. It also meant Elsa couldn't have gone far in just five minutes. Surely she had to still be around here somewhere.

Adrianna followed Anna out onto the porch and started calling out for her as well. "Elsa?" She was more panicked than Anna. Her baby was missing. Elsa never did things like this, and the newfound knowledge that Jackson had threatened Elsa somehow only made her panic worse.

"She can't have gone far, right?" Anna asked. "She has to still be here. She has to." She quickly walked over to the edge of the porch to look around the side of the house and see if Elsa had gone back there for some reason. Then she did the same on the other side of the porch, but Elsa wasn't there.

"What do we do now?"

"She's gone," a voice from the house next door said. "I called the police."

Adrianna looked over and saw their neighbor Andrews Mikkenny standing on his porch with a camcorder. She wasn't sure what to say. However, the "What are you doing with that camera," that she did say, seemed appropriate.

"I was recording the birds," he said, "when I saw them. I don't know who they were but they were the definition of suspicious, so I called the police, then they knocked on your door and Elsa answered and before I was even off the phone with the police, they grabbed her and were gone."

"They? As in more than one?" Anna asked.

"There were like five of them," Andrews said. "Big guys. I didn't hear what they were saying but they looked like they were made of pure evil."

"This can't be happening," Anna said. "This can't be happening. No."

"Anna?"

"They got her. They couldn't get me so they got her." She wasn't listening to anything Adrianna might have been saying to her. "This is all my fault." She started to head inside wanting to get Karson. "I have to find her."

"Anna. No." Adrianna wrapped her arms around Anna to stop her from moving.

"Let me go! I have to find her." She was crying. Nothing could have convinced her in that moment that Elsa getting kidnapped wasn't her fault.

"Anna no," Adrianna snapped, which got Anna's attention rather quickly. "I am not going to lose you too. We're going to find Elsa, but you are going to stay here. In case she comes home somehow. You will stay here."

"I have to find her."

"Anna, you are a child. Listen to me. There is nothing you can do that we can't. We will find her, but you will not." She turned Anna around and looked her directly in the eyes hoping that she'd be able to convey to her the fear she felt. "Anna. Please. I can't lose you when I only just got you back. These men are extremely dangerous. You of all of us know that best. You're hurt. They hurt you and they won't hesitate to do it again. Wait here. Please."

"But," Anna began.

"No."

"I want to help."

"Anna, please, for once just leave this to the adults."

Reggie, Janine, and Lukas came out shortly, really worried about why this was taking so long.

"Adri, where's Elsa?" Lukas asked.

No one said anything for a moment. Adrianna's face said it all.

"We've got to call the police," Lukas said.

"A little late for that," said the officer that had come by earlier, walking up to them with one of her superiors. "I wasn't expecting to be back so soon. Alright, so we've got…A kidnapping? Damn you sure are having rotten luck today… Sorry. We need a description of both her and the people who took her."

The superior officer, a sergeant, shook his head at the younger officer's semi-rambling. "Firstly," he said and they all turned to look at him. "Do you know who took your daughter?"

"The leader goes by 'Mario da Firenze'," Anna said.

"The Firenze gang doesn't just kidnap people for no reason," the sergeant said. "Any idea why they took her?"

"Because I got away." She didn't seem at all intimidated by the fact that they were a gang that the police already knew about.

"So you've dealt with them before?" he asked. There was no reason this kid should have already had dealings with those monsters. No reason at all.

"Yes."

"Care to explain?"

"No."

"That's a little suspicious."

"And they're fucking rapists. I want my girlfriend back. And I want them to pay for taking her in the first place," Anna said practically shouting. "Are you going to help or are you just going to stand here asking questions?"

"Anna," Adrianna said as means of a warning.

"I like you kid, you've got spunk. But that mouth of yours will get you in a lot of trouble if you don't learn to control it. We need to know what your girlfriend looks like."

Lukas quickly pulled out his wallet and got out one of Elsa's senior pictures that he had in it. "I have a picture, it's pretty recent."

"Alright," the sergeant said taking the picture. "We need to get as many people as possible out looking for her," he said to the other officer who nodded and stepped away to radio in.

"How long has she been gone?"

"Twenty minutes at most."

"There's still time to find her before something really bad happens to her."

Anna nodded, "I suppose you're going to tell me to stay here."

The sergeant nodded. "For a different reason than what she—" he pointed at Adrianna "—has probably told you. I need you to stay here in case they try to contact you or her parents. We need someone here who can take the message."

Anna nodded. "I can do that."

"We need the dog for this as well," the sergeant said to the adults.

Anna headed inside, not trusting herself to wait outside without running off to find Elsa herself. She was followed in by Janine.

"You're not going to be here alone," Janine said.

"Don't you want to help them find Elsa?" Anna asked.

"I do," Janine said. "But I can only imagine the kinds of things that might be going through your head right now. None of them are good."

Anna looked down and nodded. She hated that she was such an open book with her emotions and wished just once that she could be more like Elsa. Everyone out there probably knew she was more terrified than mad right now.

"Anna, I know this is hard for you. But try not to blame yourself for this."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" Anna snapped forgetting for a moment that Janine was her teacher and she shouldn't be talking to her like that. "How am I supposed to do anything? I can't save Elsa. I can't stop them from hurting her. I'm useless." She paced around for a second. Then walked over to the couch and sat down, because being on her leg hurt too much.

"Anna, you're not useless. If you didn't feel like something was wrong we might not have known Elsa was even missing at all until the police showed up."

"I shouldn't have let her answer the door."

"Anna, listen to yourself," Janine said. "You sound like you've given up all hope in everything good. Enough. You did nothing wrong. You could not have changed what happened. If someone else had gotten the door then it would have just been someone else who they took. Would you still blame yourself then?"

"Yes."

Janine sighed, that wasn't what she'd wanted as a response. "It's not your fault."

"That doesn't change the fact that I feel like it is, and I will never feel like it's not."

Janine walked away for a moment then came back and tossed something at Anna, who looked up just in time to get hit with a flying chocolate bar.

"Shit," Janine said quickly. "I didn't mean for that to hit you. I have really bad aim."

"Chocolate?"

"If it works against dementor attacks it should at least help a little against a depressive or anxious episode."

"You're in to Harry Potter?"

"It's pretty good. My friends made me watch it in college when I admitted I hadn't seen them."

Anna opened up the chocolate bar then paused before taking a bite. "Call the other teachers. Call your little purple haired friend. Call anyone you can think of. The more people looking for Elsa, the faster we can get her home."

Janine nodded and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She spent the next two hours calling people and getting the entire faculty of three different schools looking for her. She even got the superintendent of the school district to send out an emergency announcement via the school's weather alert line for parents and other students to be looking out for her too. The last person she called was her "little purple haired friend".

"Cronan," she muttered pacing around the room. "Pick up. Pick up. I know you hate phone calls but pick up."

"Hello?" her friend's soft nervous voice said. "What's wrong Janine? Please don't tell me you just called to say hello."

Janine stopped pacing when Cronan answered, almost afraid that her nervous pacing would make Cronan more nervous even though they couldn't see her, also slightly afraid her shitty cellphone might drop the call if she moved too much. "Remember when you came to my orchestra class?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember the blonde haired first chair flute player?"

"Yeah? What about her?"

"She got kidnapped and we need your help to find her."

"Kidnapped? How am I supposed to help with kidnapped?"

"You do that dangerous thing called wandering the city alone. You know places that other people don't. I figured that means you'd know places to look that other people wouldn't."

"Who kidnapped her?"

"Some people called the Firenze gang."

"You're not going to like this, but I know exactly where they are."

"You do?" They were right. She did not like that at all.

"I do. I make it a point to know everything about this city as it's the setting of most of my novels. The Firenze gang like to attack people in light or dark alleyways. There's a lot of alleys in this city. However, they run a smuggling operation out of a warehouse on the bay."

"Smuggling? What are they smuggling?"

"People."

"That's not good."

"You'd best hope they didn't take Elsa there. If they did, it'll be years before she's found. If she's found."

"Wouldn't the police know about that warehouse?"

"They probably checked it as soon as they found out who kidnapped her. Tell me, is there anyone else involved? If they're looking for revenge they're not going to ship her off to other people who might not give them the revenge they want."

"Her girlfriend."

"The little redhead violinist?"

"What gave you that idea?"

"I'm a shipper at heart. I'm in love with love."

"Yes," Janine said with a little chuckle. "Her."

"I might have an idea of where to look. Where should I bring her if I find her?"

"1698 Castle Road."

"Make sure they don't lock the door, or turn off the front light. I will return."

"Thanks Cronan," she said her voice full of worry. "Please be careful."

"Don't worry about me. Worry about Elsa."

"Right," she said her tone proving that she was still going to worry about Cronan too.

"And Janine?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"Love you too, Cronan."

They ended the call and Janine walked over to sit beside Anna who was looking very uncomfortable. Anna was fidgeting where she was sitting and whining like an injured puppy.

"Anna what's wrong? Other than the whole your girlfriend is missing thing."

"Elsa's mom took her purse with her didn't she?"

"I don't think she did. It was sitting on the kitchen counter when the rest of us came outside."

"Would you go get it for me?" Anna asked wincing as she tried to stand up and immediately sat back down.

"Of course." Janine stood up and went to retrieve the purse and brought it into the living room.

Anna took it from her and started searching through it and found the two little prescription bottles with her name on them and opened the one that said "for pain" on the label. She took one of the pills in her hand and motioned vaguely to the water bottle on the coffee table. Janine handed it to her and she took the pill.

"I hope that starts working soon, my leg is killing me."

Janine nodded even though she hadn't had any idea that Anna was physically hurt from what she went through. They hadn't heard anything from anyone the whole time they'd been waiting. She was really starting to get worried. She sat down beside Anna again and this time Anna leaned against her, hugging her gently.

"I'm scared."

Janine nodded. That was a step forward from blaming herself. "I'm scared too."

"You're a teacher. You're not supposed to get scared."

"Anna, I'm a person. Just like you. Just like Elsa. Just like everyone else." Janine hugged Anna back. In all honesty she was glad that Anna was even talking to her about any of this. Students usually tried to hide their feelings from their teachers unless those feelings were anger or joy.

"What if they don't find her?"

"I don't know," Janine said honestly. She really didn't want to think about that. Instead she thought maybe she could entertain Anna with stories from when she was in college.

It worked for about two hours, when they heard the front door open and Cronan called out, "Janine?"

She and Anna both shot up off the couch and ran to the living room door, stopping dead when they saw them.

A person Janine's age, but not even Anna's height, was trying to support Elsa who was a good eight inches taller than her. Elsa looked like she'd been through hell, her clothes were torn, she had a black eye and a bloody nose. The thing that stood out the most as seriously wrong with the whole picture was her hair. Her beautiful braid was gone and what was left fell loosely around her face, barely reaching her shoulder.

"Elsa!" Anna cried out running up to her. "Your face…Your hair…Your clothes…What did they do to you?"


	20. Chapter 20

Answering the door shouldn't have been nearly a death sentence. Elsa knew that. She'd never had such a bad scare from answering the door in her entire life. It was worse than the Halloween of the assholes with fake chainsaws. It's not every day you answer a door to have a guy like almost twice your size say, in the heaviest Italian accent you've ever heard, "This one will do nicely. The redhead will regret crossing us."

They carried her away from the house, kicking and fighting with a hand firmly clasped over her mouth before she'd even had the chance to scream. She had trouble processing the situation logically, the only thought in her head being, 'please God, let me come home to Anna.'

She'd never in her life thought she would ever get kidnapped. That was something that only happened on tv, in books, in movies. She started crying when they got to the end of the block and roughly pushed her into the back of a waiting van, then quickly got in themselves.

When the van drove away she realized quickly that they no longer seemed interested in keeping her quiet as the guy whose hand had been over her mouth had let go.

"What do you want with me?" she asked quietly, she didn't want to piss them off, but she couldn't just sit there either.

"With you?" the accented man said. He seemed to be considering it. "Perhaps, we will give you a taste of what the redhead is missing out on trying to hide from us."

"What does that mean?"

"You must be more clueless than she," the accented man said. "Dovino, show her what I mean."

"T-that's not really necessary," she stuttered as one of the men pulled her up onto his lap.

"But it is," the man, Dovino, said. "The boss said so."

When the van finally stopped at their final destination, Elsa was more than a little red in the face from crying and trying to argue her way out of getting hurt. So far, that plan hadn't worked. It seemed like the van was driving too fast for anyone on the street to hear her. The men in the front of the van smirked and got out quickly. It wasn't long before the back doors of the van opened up and Elsa was forced out into the open, two of the men slamming the door shut behind her.

She looked around hoping to find some clue of where she was, but she didn't see anything she recognized. She almost lost hope that they were still in Arendelle, but something told her they were.

"Anything to say?" the accented man said walking up to her.

Elsa shook her head fearfully and backed away from him until her back was against the van.

"You are very beautiful," he said, brushing his hand along her cheek. "It is too bad that you do not like men." He turned away for a moment, then turned back and slapped her. "You would be wise to at least pretend that you do. It will make this less shameful for you."

Elsa didn't respond. She was too scared to.

"Look at her. She is wise enough to know to keep quiet now," he chuckled. "She is wise, but not smart."

That was very offensive. "I am too smart."

He slapped her harder causing her to stumble to the side a little with a hand coming up to her face instinctively to touch the mark she was sure it left.

"Did I say you could talk?"

Elsa shook her head.

"Dovino," he said. Dovino stepped forward with a grin on his face. "Teach her a lesson."

Elsa gasped and with a yelp turned to try to run away. A mistake, because Dovino simply reached out and pulled her back by her braid.

She whimpered and nearly screamed in pain. "Please let me go," she cried. "I'll be good. Just please let go of the hair!"

Dovino simply shrugged, letting go of her braid and grabbing her arm instead. He twisted it behind her back and roughly pushed her up against the wall of the building they were behind.

A few hours later, she pulled herself into a sitting position against the wall after the majority of the men had had their fun. Maybe she'd be able to run away this time. Most of them didn't seem like they wanted to deal with her fighting them anymore. As badly as her nose hurt, she was pretty sure that it was probably broken now. It wouldn't surprise her if it was, not with how hard that last guy hit.

She had gotten some good hits in herself. She kicked one of them so hard that he was still in the fetal position. The men, all except Dovino who was standing guard to make sure she didn't make a run for it, were huddled at the back of the van discussing what to do with her. Elsa sat there looking for any possible escape and not sure quite what she would do if she did get away. She still had no idea where exactly they were.

Barely audible over the noise of the city, a scraping sound caught her attention only seconds before something small and metal hit her shoe. She took it into her hand quickly before Dovino could see it. It was a switch blade with a note taped to it. _Open this, get up. Be prepared to run like hell. Do not use it against them. You are fast. Think._

She had no idea where the knife came from but she wasted no time following the instructions. She quickly stood up, wincing as she did so. Clicking out the blade of the knife, she noticed that it was extremely sharp by how easily it drew blood from her thumb by accident when opening it. Then she turned and looked down to the end of the alley they were in. She noticed someone, it looked like a middle schooler. They were standing there, waving for her to run now. She nodded and took off down the alley.

Dovino grabbed her by the braid again, but was not prepared for what she did this time. She quickly bought the knife up behind her, pulling her head forward to put as much tension on the braid as possible. She mouthed 'I'm sorry Mom' as she swiped the knife through it. She nearly fell when the tension on her hair was released but the surprise of doing that allowed her to gain speed on him who, despite being taller, was also slower. When she came out the end of the alley, the middle school size person grabbed her hand and pulled her into the middle of a crowd of people getting on a public bus.

Stepping onto the bus after that person, she noticed they had purple hair.

"Close the knife. Sit there," the purple haired savior said pointing at the seat right behind the driver. "Put your head on your knees so they can't see you if they look in."

Elsa did as they said while they were paying the fee for both of them to ride. The person then sat down beside Elsa and in less than a minute, the bus was pulling away just as the men came out of the alley.

"Elsa," they said, putting a hand on her back and gently telling her it was okay to sit up. "My name's Cronan. I'm friends with your orchestra teacher, Janine Neprud. I came to find you because Janine asked me to."

"Cronan," Elsa whispered getting used to the name. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet, we still need to get to your house. You're lucky in a way."

"Where are you two headed?" The driver asked. He'd seen Cronan on the bus before and knew they weren't one for talking to other people. The phrase, "I came to find you," had caught his attention.

"The intersection of the 16 and 17 hundreds blocks of Castle Road," Cronan said.

"You'll want the Freeman and Castle Road stop," he said. "It's a bit of a walk but it's the closest you'll get on this bus."

"That's the 1500s block," Elsa said making sure she knew exactly where she was going. It was two blocks away from her house, but she felt like she'd be able to walk it.

"Do you have a tissue? Or paper towel?" Cronan asked the driver.

"Unfortunately no."

Cronan nodded, eyeing Elsa's bloody nose suspiciously.

It wasn't long before they got to the stop they needed and got off the bus. They walked up the couple blocks to Elsa's house together. Elsa gained a heavy sway in her steps from how dizzy she became. It got worse the longer she walked. By the time they'd made it to her house, she was leaning against Cronan who was supporting her, barely.

Getting Elsa up the steps and through the door was a feat for Cronan..

When Anna and Janine came running over them, Cronan stepped back and motioned for Janine to help them.

"What did they do to you?" Anna asked Elsa fearfully.

"I'm sorry." That was all Elsa said before she finally passed out from the combined pain and blood loss.


	21. Chapter 21

It was rather bright in the hospital for so late at night. Elsa blinked a couple times just to make sure she was seeing everything correctly. The ceiling was a dull grayish color and the walls were cream colored. She couldn't read the clock either. That wasn't very encouraging. She'd hoped it was all just a dream, but the walls in her room at home were very much not white. They were the most amazing blue. She didn't remember being taken to the hospital, but there wasn't anywhere else she could be. The IV in her arm told her that much. She looked around a little bit. It didn't seem to her like anyone else was there with her. That didn't make sense. There had to be someone else. There had to be.

She remembered making it home with that little purple haired person. Cronan they'd said they were. Surely they were there with her. If not them, then Anna had to be. She just had to. It wasn't right. Anna wouldn't leave her here alone if she had the choice. After a few moments she realized something. There was someone standing at the door to her room, talking. She couldn't hear what they were saying but their voice was familiar. Familiar and calming. But she couldn't quite tell who it was.

Then another familiar voice slightly louder joined in. "You can't keep me out of that room. I need to see her."

The first familiar voice responded with something else Elsa couldn't quite hear.

"Please, I have to see her. Please. I don't understand why you won't just let me in. She's my best friend dammit. Let me see her!"

Anna? Why wouldn't they let Anna into her room? "Anna?" Her voice hurt. Her throat hurt. Most of her body hurt, but nothing hurt more than them denying Anna the right to see her, especially when they let her stay with Anna not even a day earlier.

Both voices stopped talking then, almost as though they were shocked she was awake.

"She's awake. Please let me see her. Please, she wants me to."

"Anna what's wrong?" Elsa asked, surely whoever else was out there wouldn't keep Anna away from her for long knowing she was awake now. Surely they wouldn't.

There was a moment of quiet arguing and then Anna came into the room looking rather triumphant. Her face fell slightly at the sight of Elsa with so many bandages. Elsa had no idea just how many she had, she couldn't really feel them. She could only see the ones on her arms.

"Elsa," Anna whispered and walked over to her. "How do you feel?"

"I feel fine," Elsa said with a small smile. "My throat hurts a little, and so do my legs, but other than that I feel fine. How do you feel?"

"Who cares?" Anna said dismissively. "I'm not the one who got hurt. You are."

"I care Anna," Elsa said leaving no room for argument.

"Why do you care? You're the one who got hurt. It's my fault you got hurt." Anna looked away from Elsa for a moment.

"Anna, I cannot believe you would dare think that I don't care about my girlfriend, my best friend." Elsa reached out carefully and took Anna's hand gently. "Anna, please. I'm not mad at you. I don't blame you. I never did. I never will. It's not your fault."

"But it is my fault. They came for me and took you," Anna said with a slight sniffle.

"Anna, they came for revenge, not for you or me," Elsa lied. She wanted Anna to be happy, but she knew that would be easier said than done. Though there was something she could do, could suggest. "Anna, will you come with me to my therapy session tomorrow?"

"What good would that do?" Anna asked.

"I don't know, maybe none. But I want you to talk to my therapist. I want to help you. You don't have to deal with any of this alone. I promise. And you won't deal with it alone," Elsa said. "We'll work together. We'll talk together. We'll fight together."

"No. I don't want you getting hurt again because of me," Anna said.

"Anna, I promise there's nothing you could say or do that could hurt me more than making me watch you suffer and not letting me at least try to help you."

Anna didn't look Elsa in the eye when she said that. She didn't want to think about the fact that she was hurting Elsa, even unintentionally. But in her mind, there was absolutely no way she was letting Elsa into her little world of pain and suffering. Elsa didn't deserve to have to deal with that. She didn't. Elsa was in enough pain and trouble as it was, just dealing with her own life and her own problems. Elsa didn't need to have to deal with her problems too. No matter what Elsa said, it wasn't worth it. There wasn't a good reason for Elsa to have to take on more than she needed to.

"Anna have you been to sleep yet?" Elsa asked gently.

Anna shook her head. Sleep was the last thing on her mind. The absolute last. But leave it to Elsa to be concerned about everyone's wellbeing but her own. That was just like her, honestly. She didn't understand how Elsa could possibly be so calm about any of this. About all of it. She couldn't even begin to imagine what they had done to her. Well she could, but she didn't want to. She just didn't understand how Elsa was able to be so calm, so not a crying mess over it. There had to be an explanation. Of course this would have been easier for Anna to figure out if she'd taken a psychology class, but those weren't available to her class group.

"Anna, you need to sleep," Elsa said gently.

Anna shook her head again. She knew there was no arguing with Elsa on this point, but she could still deny it. She could still pretend like she didn't need to sleep. It was easier that way.

"Anna please," Elsa said a little sadly. "At least say something."

"I don't understand how you can be so calm and caring about other people when what happened to you happened. I don't understand," Anna said. "You're acting like it's no big deal. Like you didn't really get hurt. But you're in the hospital. You were crying in your sleep. Elsa, I know you care about me. I know that. But you have to know that I care about you too. You woke up for a brief moment when the EMTs came to your house. You bit one of them when they were shining a light in your eyes."

"I bit someone? Are they okay?"

"Elsa, do you even hear yourself? Do you even hear me? Is there something going on in that brain of yours other than the constant motherly need to make sure everyone is safe? The EMT is fine, but you are not. You couldn't possibly be."

Elsa winced slightly. "Anna, I promise I'm fine."

"How could you possibly be fine?"

"I've been in cognitive behavioral therapy since I was twelve. I know how my mind works, how to deal with thoughts and emotions. I'm on an antidepressant and an anti-anxiety medicine. Anna, I'm fine because I'm prepared to deal with something like this. My body might be a little beat up, I might have been terrified when it happened. But I am fine now, because I'm here with you. I know that nothing will happen to me now. There's no one going to hurt me. I know I'm safe now. That's the important thing for me. I know all that stuff. The only thing that would make me feel any better is knowing that everyone else is safe and fine and happy too."

Anna looked down for a moment then back up and said, "It's not supposed to work like this though. How am I supposed to comfort you if you don't need to be comforted? How am I supposed to be here for you if you don't need me?" She tried to blink away tears. "You've never needed me."

With a bit of effort Elsa sat up on the bed. "No, Anna. Anna you don't understand. I've always needed you. I'll always need you. Anna, please don't cry. Please try to understand, I'm a worrier. It's part of that oh so wonderful thing called my personality. I worry about people. I need to worry about people or I start worrying about things that don't need to be worried about, like if the ladybug in the garden has enough to eat or if the tree is getting enough sunshine. I worry about you. I need to. I have to. I love to. I know that probably doesn't make much sense and definitely isn't normal, but I like worrying about you. It reminds me how much I love you and how lucky I am to have you."

"You like worrying about me? But I do nothing but get into trouble. There must be a lot to worry about, if you picked me to worry over." Anna smiled a little. "I don't understand, but I believe you."

Elsa smiled and gently pulled Anna over to her bed by her hand, then kissed her cheek. "Thank you Anna. I'm sorry I worried you. I'm sorry that you have to see me like this."

"Are you kidding? I've seen worse, besides, I'm just glad that I'm seeing you and not a black bag with your nametag on it. Or worse."

Elsa started to respond but scrunched up her face in utter bewilderment. "What could possibly be worse than me being dead?"

"Getting expelled from Hogwarts?" Anna said with a smile, then noticing Elsa did not look amused said, "I was only joking there. The people who took you, the Firenze gang? They're known for 'people smuggling' which is a very nerdy cutesy way of saying human trafficking. That would be worse than seeing you dead."

Elsa looked down for a moment the full weight of what Anna had said hitting her like a safe in an old cartoon. "They could have sold me, like some kind of animal." When she looked back up she looked quite a bit less at ease with her experience. "I'm no more than an object to them. They sell people. That's sick. That's disgusting. That's illegal."

"Don't forget highly immoral, and wrong on every single level I can think of," Anna said. "Are you okay?"

"Just an animal, an object, a thing," Elsa said, not really paying much attention to what Anna was saying. "I don't know where they would have sent me. I would have been gone. I would have probably never seen you again." Her bottom lip quivered a moment and then she looked at Anna. "I would have died, without ever getting to say goodbye." And she fell forward onto Anna's shoulder, crying.

Anna wasn't sure how to respond to that, she was significantly out of the realm of her previous experiences and her expertise. She was usually the one crying. It wasn't right, seeing Elsa cry. But she did what she could and held Elsa close, whispering that it was okay, she wasn't dead and she wasn't going to be dead for a long time. She kept that up until Elsa fell back asleep and even a little bit after that. A nurse came in and told her that her options were sleep on the little fold out single person sleeper chair or go home, that it wasn't healthy for her to stay awake so long.

Reluctantly, Anna let the nurse help Elsa to lie down and then when the nurse finished setting up the little sleeper, laid down on it. "Before I sleep, where's everyone else?"

"Either sleeping or talking to the police, I'm sure they'll explain it all tomorrow. Please try to sleep well," the nurse said.

Soon after that Anna was asleep.


	22. Chapter 22

"She's never going to understand." The voice was soft and slightly argumentative.

Elsa blinked groggily but didn't stir, not wanting whoever was talking to know she was awake yet. There wasn't much there to tell her exactly what was going on, but she knew one thing for certain. She was still in the hospital.

"How do you explain to someone who only just became an adult in December that they're not going to be able to have children? Why would you explain that to them?"

Elsa smiled and chuckled a little. Then she sat up and saw that it was Rapunzel standing there, in her scrubs and white coat, talking to the doctor. "I always thought I would just adopt anyways, now I have a solid reason to. I thought you weren't supposed to work on family members, Punzie?"

"I'm not working on you, I'm consulting," Punzie said. "Sit back before you accidentally pull that IV out."

Elsa glanced at her arm then over to Anna who was still asleep. "Does Anna know?"

"Does she know what?" the doctor asked.

"That I can't have kids of my own," Elsa asked. She looked down for a moment then said quietly. "Is it because I got hurt or is it just me?"

"It's a condition known as Mullerian Agenesis," the doctor said. "By the way, my name is Dr. Blackwell."

"What does that mean, exactly? Mullerian Agenesis?" Elsa asked.

"Basically," Punzie said, "you were born without a uterus, and a shortened vagina. Man, it feels really weird using actual medical words like those around my baby cousin."

"Well," Elsa said. "That's unusual. Explains a bit about why it hurt so much… eh anyways-" She shrugged. "-Who cares about the words, I'm an adult. I'm also hungry."

"Are you always so calm about everything?" Punzie asked. "I don't understand how you do it."

"What time is it?" Elsa asked. "Can I have lunch? What about my normal meds? I think my mom has them. Can someone get them for me? Dr. Teresa says I'm not supposed to miss a dose because it could be bad for me."

"What medicines would those be?" Dr. Blackwell asked suspiciously. He needed to double check the chart then, no medications were listed as prior meds for her.

"I take lorazepam, as needed for my anxiety, and a low dose of Cymbalta daily for both my anxiety and depression," Elsa said. "I need to know what time it is."

"It's 12:30 pm," Punzie said. "Why weren't those medicines listed in your file?"

"I have no idea," Elsa said quietly. "Ask my mom. She knows everything."

Punzie and Dr. Blackwell exchanged a look and Dr. Blackwell made a note about those medicines in her file.

"We'll need to monitor you closely to make sure that you're not getting an adverse reaction to the hydrocodone," Dr. Blackwell said. "Let one of us know if you experience any dizziness, swelling, drowsiness, or difficulty concentrating."

"I don't have anything to concentrate on," Elsa said. "And you still haven't told me if I can have some lunch or not."

"Yeah sure, lunch should be fine. Either ask order off the little menu there beside your bed or get someone to go get you something from the Subway down by the lobby," Dr. Blackwell said. "Just make sure whatever you get doesn't have capsaicin in it."

"Why for?" Elsa asked. "I mean, I don't even like spicy foods, I'm just curious."

"It's just a bad idea, it can irritate the stomach and throat, making taking hydrocodone a little unpredictable concerning the side effects," Dr. Blackwell said.

"Alright then, nothing spicy," Elsa said. "Have either of you seen my mom? I'm thinking tuna. I like tuna."

"Why don't you just wake Anna up and send her?" Punzie asked.

"Anna doesn't have any money," Elsa said reasonably, even though she had no idea whether or not that was true.

"I see, well if I see your mom I'll let her know to come to your room," Punzie said. "I'm not sure why she hasn't been by already though."

"Maybe she has and I was just asleep," Elsa said.

"Maybe. One of the two of us will be back to check on you later," Punzie said as she and Dr. Blackwell left the room to go check on other patients.

Elsa stared around the room for a while trying to think of something she could do. When she came up with no ideas and couldn't even figure out how the TV worked, she sighed and settled on staring at Anna. After a while though even that became rather boring, though Anna was cute.

"Anna," Elsa said her voice slightly above a whisper. "Pssst. Hey, Anna. Anna. Anna. Anna, wake up. Anna, wakey wakey."

Anna stirred a little but didn't wake up. Elsa frowned. Somehow she had to get Anna to wake up so she would have someone to talk to.

"Anna," she singsonged. "Wakey wakey, the sun is shining, the birds are singing and I am disastrously bored."

Anna rolled over a little. "Birds, in my room?" Anna mumbled not opening her eyes.

"It's more likely than you think," Elsa said. "Especially if you keep sleeping with the windows open."

"The windows? Open?" Anna mumbled and sat up. She yawned and stretched. "Impossible. Hospital windows don't open."

"Good, then at least I don't have to tell you where you are. Talk to me, I'm bored and I can't get the TV to work," Elsa said practically whining.

"Have you tried actually using the TV remote?" Anna asked picking a remote up off the floor.

"Wait there's more than one?" Elsa asked thoroughly confused.

"Apparently," Anna said with a chuckle setting the remote on Elsa's bed. "Are you doing okay? Not hurting much or anything?"

"Anna, there's something I want to ask you," Elsa said.

"I don't like the sound of that," Anna said moving to sit on the edge of Elsa's bed.

"Anna do you want to have kids someday?" Elsa asked quietly.

"Haven't we already been over this? I'm just a kid myself, I don't know if I want them. But if I want them someday, then we can talk about it," Anna said. She turned and gently brushed a strand of hair out of Elsa's face. "Why do you ask?"

Elsa thought for a moment. She could lie and save Anna the worry, or she could tell her the truth. "The doctor told me that I can't have children of my own."

"Do you want any?" Anna asked, there were many questions on her mind that one seemed rather relevant though.

"I don't know, maybe?" Elsa looked away from Anna. "I always assumed I'd have kids someday. I just never really thought about if I really wanted them or if they'd even be mine."

Anna smiled. "Then someday perhaps, when, if we're ready we can go adopt."

"You're really calm about this," Elsa said quietly.

"And you're calm about a lot of things," Anna replied. She leaned over and kissed Elsa's forehead. "I love you. Whether or not you can have kids does not change that."

"Anna, do you have any money?" Elsa asked.

"No, why?" Anna asked in response.

"I'm hungry and there's a Subway and the doctor said I could have someone bring me something from it, and that's really not professional but I guess it's fine because he's a doctor and I'm not on any special diet or anything," Elsa said.

"Does that have anything to do with what we were talking about?" Anna asked with a chuckle.

"No, but I'm hungry," Elsa whined. "Have you seen my mom?"

"Considering it's 12:40 on a Sunday? She's probably somewhere," Anna said. She honestly had no clue where Elsa's mom might be.

"What about Cronan? I want to ask them something," Elsa said.

"Why them? Didn't Janine call Cronan a she?" Anna asked more confused about Elsa's choice of pronouns than the fact that Elsa had a question for the person who she'd only met once but saved her life.

"Well, it just feels right," Elsa replied.

"Cronan is out in the lobby," Anna said. "At least that's where I left her at three am."

"They could have left by now," Elsa said quietly.

"Do you want me to go look?" Anna asked.

"There's no need," Cronan said from the door. "I did go home, but that was only to bring this guy back." They smiled and walked into the room with an excited but tame dog on a leash.

"Aww, he even has a vest!" Anna practically squealed. "How adorable!"

"He's a trained therapy dog. I bring him around here a lot actually. I get pretty much free reign of the hospital when I do," they said with a smile. "This is Finch. I named him after Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird. I stole him off some pedo in the park."

"Wait, what?" Elsa asked. "There's got to be a story there."

"So get this," Cronan said with a wicked smile. "I was walking through the park one day, a Saturday. And I came across this guy obviously trying to get little kids. He had a puppy and some candy and I walked over and pet the puppy and he gave me the candy and was all like 'hey if you want there's more puppies in my car, I'm trying to find them homes. Would you like to come see them? Maybe your parents might even let you take one.' and I took the candy, kicked him between the legs and stole the puppy while yelling 'I'm 23, asshole. And this isn't the first time you've tried this with me!' And then I ran off."

"Wow, you're such a badass," Anna said as Cronan walked over with Finch.

"Language young one. Ah, who am I kidding, I cuss like a sailor when I'm mad," Cronan said. "I don't think we've ever been properly introduced y'all. My name is Cronan Michaels, I'm a writer."

"Which of us is right, Cronan? Are you a they or a she, or do you even care?" Anna asked. "Or is that rude of me to ask?"

"I'm a they, agender," Cronan said. "It's not really rude, just unusual. No one ever asks, people just assume I'm a she, and since I grew up a she I don't correct them. It doesn't bother me. Even Janine still calls me a she."

"How did you meet Janine?" Anna asked.

"Does Janine know you're in love with her?" Elsa asked, at the same time as Anna asked her question.

"One at a time. I highly doubt she actually realizes, she can be quite oblivious at times. I met her in college," Cronan said. "In my freshman year, she was right across the hall from me. We became friends, and we've been super close ever since. At first though we were just acquaintances, we became closer around Thanksgiving. Then we were pretty much best of friends ever since. But neither of those things are what you wanted to ask me."

Elsa nodded shyly. "I really wanted to know. How did you find me? You said you came to find me, came to get me. And I want to know how you knew."

Cronan nodded sagely. "I thought you might be curious. There's just some things I can't tell you for your own protection."

"You seem to know a lot, do a lot," Elsa said. "What is your real job?"

Cronan chuckled. "You just want to ask all the big questions, don't you?" They shook their head though. "I'll tell you what I can. But it won't satisfy you. I'm a writer, I wander the city in search of the unusual, the extraordinary, the difficult to process, the painful, the sorrowful, the dangerous, and the mythical. I have two cats, three dogs, several fish, a ferret, and a lizard, also a fox but he's not actually my pet and just wanders around because I live near the woods at the edge of town. My books are best sellers in 37 countries and have been translated into almost 100 languages. I have a partner, who is genderfluid. And friends all over the world, that I met through the internet. I spend my time either writing or wandering the city. What else I do in my time is on a need to know basis and you don't need to know, yet. There's a lot about me you don't need to know."

"You're so secretive," Anna said. "Like a spy."

"But you're also reckless," Elsa said simply.

"Don't forget, loudmouthed, rude, vulgar, and childish. That's just what makes me so awesome."

"Cronan, don't lie to them for the sake of quoting your favorite cartoon. You're not rude, loudmouthed or vulgar," Janine said from the door. "It's a wonder anyone ever lets you be alone."

"How long have you been standing there?" Cronan asked.

"I just got here," Janine said with a chuckle. "So, long enough to have only heard from 'like a spy' onward."

"Amazing," Cronan said. "Simply amazing. Did you come here to check on Elsa, or to keep me from lying to the kids?"

"Neither, I came here to give Anna her pain meds," Janine said pulling a little prescription bottle out of her pocket. "And also to tell you that your girlfriend said if you leave the door unlocked one more time she's changing the locks, then you can test and see if you really know how to pick locks."

"Maybe I wouldn't leave the door unlocked so much if I remembered to lock the door. That made no sense and I'm sorry. Janine, will you watch Finch and the children? I'm hungry."

"Me too," Elsa said.

"There's a Subway downstairs. What do you want?" Cronan smiled. They were more than happy to go get Elsa something to eat too.

"Tuna, on Italian herb and cheese bread with all the cheese, some mayonnaise, olives and pickles," Elsa said with a smile. "Ohh and something to drink. Maybe Dr. Pepper?"

"Right, what about you Anna?" Cronan said.

Neither Elsa nor Anna had noticed when she pulled her phone out and started writing the order down, but they didn't really care.

"How do you know my name?" Anna asked.

"Janine said it," Cronan said not wanting to say that they knew it even before then, because they might sound creepy. "What do you want?"

"Six inch BLT with the white shredded cheese and a pretzel, if they have them. Salted," Anna said. She didn't think about arguing with Cronan over getting her lunch.

"And to drink?"

"I don't think you can carry that many drinks without dropping them," Anna said reasonably.

"That many? It's 3?" Cronan said.

"And you have 2 hands, one of which you need for sandwiches," Anna explained.

"Good point. Janine, help me with the food, Anna can watch Finch," Cronan said with a smile.

"Sure, I've got nothing better to do for the next two hours or so," Janine said. "Anna, can you handle watching Finch?" she asked as she walked over and handed Anna the bottle of pills. "And what do you want to drink?"

"Sprite, or whatever Pepsi has," Anna said with a smile. "Can you also get me a cookie, chocolate of some kind?"

"No problem," Janine said. "Come on Cronan, best not keep the hungry teens waiting."

Cronan and Janine left heading down to the Subway to get the food.

"Anna, did you know that Karson is also a trained therapy dog?" Elsa asked as Finch put his paws up on the bed so that Elsa could pet his head. He was a very intelligent Golden Retriever/German Shepard mix.

"That's interesting," Anna said scratching Finch's back gently. "When did that happen?"

"Around the time I first got him," Elsa said gently petting Finch's head. "It was Punzie's idea to get him trained and for a while, while he was still small, I was allowed to bring him to school. Especially for things like pep rallies, where there were lots of people in one place, as that caused me a lot of undue stress. When he started getting bigger and I a little older, I opted to leave him home. It was better that way because some people are allergic to dogs and I didn't want him to get outright banned from school."

"That's pretty smart of you," Anna said with a smile. "Karson is trained. It … it must have been really hard on you when he was missing."

"It was," Elsa said quietly. "I thought I'd lost him forever. I was scared I'd never see him again. And then just like magic, dad brought him home. I don't know where he was, or what he was doing. I'm just glad he's back with me, safe and sound."

"I…I feel the same way right now," Anna said. "About you."

"About me?" Elsa asked.

"Yes, Elsa about you. You were missing for six hours. I thought you were gone for good. Especially when no demands were made. No demands made, no calls, no nothing. Not even any word from police about whether or not they'd found you. I was terrified. I thought I had lost you and I would never get you back. Elsa, I've never been so scared of something my entire life." Anna kept her voice low and her eyes on Finch the whole time she was talking. It wasn't that she didn't want to see how Elsa was going to respond to that. It was that she didn't want Elsa to see she was close to crying again.

"Oh, Anna," Elsa whispered and put a hand gently on Anna's shoulder. "I don't know exactly what to say to make this any better. But please know that I would never leave you on purpose."

"I know that Elsa," Anna said. "I know that. You're here now and you're not going to leave me again."

"I love you too much to leave you," Elsa said quietly. "Oh, earlier I mentioned the whole thing about the doctor saying I can't have kids?"

Anna nodded. Perhaps Elsa was about to tell her something majorly important like it was the Firenze gang's fault or something.

"It's because I have Mullerian Agenesis," Elsa said.

"What does that mean, exactly?" Anna asked. "Other than the whole you can't have kids thing?"

"I was born without a uterus," Elsa said. "I'm not sure how common or what the rate of the condition might be, but it's something the doctor must have seen before because he didn't seem too concerned about it."

"Oh, well that's not so bad then," Anna said. "I mean not that it isn't bad, I just thought maybe you were going to say that you were literally so injured by what happened to you that for some reason you couldn't have kids anymore and then I would be like, super concerned and stuff."

Elsa smiled and chuckled a little as Cronan and Janine walked back into the room with the Subway order. "You're adorable Anna."

"You're both adorable," Cronan said.

"You're one to talk," Elsa said. "You're like the definition of adorable."

"Excuse you, I am badass," Cronan said, faking offense at those words.

"Pardon me," Elsa said with a chuckle. "Do you still order off the kids menu?"

"Only when someone invites me out but I already ate, and only to confuse waitstaff," Cronan said.

"Adorable," Elsa chuckled. "Perhaps you could teach me your secrets."

"What secrets? I'm four foot eleven," Cronan said.

"You've got lots of secrets," Elsa said. "Someday I want to know them."

"You're not old enough to understand them," Cronan said seriously.

"Do you know that for positive," Elsa asked. "I mean I'm 18. I'm a legal adult. Maybe I will understand if you give me the chance."

"Unlikely. It took me 3 years to understand it all myself. I'm not telling you a damn thing until it is absolutely necessary. And trust me, one day it will be necessary," Cronan said, their tone leaving no room for argument. "Just trust that when that day comes, you'll already be fully prepared to handle the information I give you."

Janine looked just as confused and slightly disturbed by that statement as Elsa was. She smiled sheepishly and held up the food. "We brought the food."

"Oh yes, thank you," Elsa said. "I almost forgot about it."

Janine passed out the food to everyone, making sure that they all got exactly what they wanted, then Cronan handed the drinks out.


	23. Chapter 23

Elsa ate her sandwich in silence, trying to think of what could be so important but dangerous that Cronan couldn't tell her yet. After she'd finished her sub she stared at her hands for a moment before saying, "You'd tell us the answers if we were endangered by whatever it is, wouldn't you?"

"Yes," Cronan said after a moment of thought. There was no reason to believe what they knew posed an immediate threat to anyone in the room.

Elsa nodded. She had bigger worries than whatever it was that Cronan wouldn't tell her anyway. "They know where we live."

"Actually," Cronan said a little sheepishly. "They know where everyone lives."

Anna choked on her soda and Janine rubbed her back gently. "Cronan, are you sure?"

"More sure than Bill Nye about global warming," Cronan said. "They have people working for the post office, the city hall, the trash collectors, the water department, the zoning board, and the board of commissioners. The mayor used to be in their pocket too, until she yelled at my sister while she was working and the owner of the place banned her. The resulting news article was catalyst for Jane Finley losing her position as mayor. After years of corruption people finally wised up."

"Wait, that was your sister?" Janine asked. "I thought you didn't have a sister."

"It never came up. She's very quiet, very shy. Doesn't much like me sometimes. I try not to bring her up, the less people know about her the safer she is. Though they did say in the article she has a sister named Cronan. But no one's connected the dots to me yet and I intend to keep it that way." Cronan shook their head as though to clear it. "This isn't the time anyways, we were talking about how the Firenze know where every single person in the city lives."

"Is it safe to assume then that they know about Reggie?" Janine asked.

"They better not know more about my brother than I do," Anna said under her breath.

"They do," Cronan said. "I mean, they know he's here. What they don't know is why."

"Cronan, how you know all this? You couldn't have just figured this out on accident or through your normal research channels. Generally only people on the inside have knowledge like that," Janine said. "Cronan, I love you. I really do. But you need to tell us the truth. How can we trust your information if we don't know how you got it in the first place?"

"Janine, you have known me for almost 10 years. You know there are some things I just can't tell you. But dammit, can't you realize that if I was in that stupid gang they would have killed me 9 years ago?" Cronan snapped. It was one of the few times anyone in person had ever made them mad enough to have them actually say something about it. For all their knowledge and sass, they were rather non confrontational in person.

"Janine, they hate literally everything I am. They hate people who are anything but straight. They hate people who defy their version of what normal gender is. They hate people who date more than one person at a time. They hate me, for being who I am. I'm not about to join up with a group that would rather have a brick on their team than have me alive."

Finch looked between Cronan and Janine while Elsa was petting him. It wasn't like those two to fight. They were best friends. He moved out from under Elsa's hand and walked over to Cronan and nudged them gently. He whined.

"Not now Finch," Cronan said. "Janine, what the hell gave you the idea that I would work for people like them? You know damn well why I would never."

Janine nodded looking a little guilty. "Cronan, you have to understand how bad the situation looks. You know things about them that only one of them should rightfully know. You knew where they were. You knew what to do. Cronan, you're keeping secrets to keep us safe. But you're making yourself look damn suspicious while you do it. Please understand that if we had some clue as to where you learned this stuff, I wouldn't be nearly as suspicious." She reached in her pocket and pulled out her teacher ID card. "You have to understand that I'm a teacher. It's my job to teach my students, to protect them, to care about them. They got hurt and you know things about it. To me it looks no better on you right now than it does on any of the kids at the high school who know things when stuff goes missing or people get in fights, but refuse to tell how they know. You look no better than a suspect on CSI denying any connection to a crime but knowing 190% of the details."

"You have to think about perspective," Elsa said. "Both of you. I don't mean to be rude, you're both a lot older than me. But you have to think about perspective. Of course this looks bad. It looks bad to both of you. Janine, you suspect Cronan of learning from being in the gang. Cronan, you're mad because Janine suspects you of being in the gang. But there's a third thing neither of you considered in thinking about this. An informant. The FBI, CIA, police departments, detectives, reporters, possibly gangs, definitely the mafia, all use them. Cronan probably does too, as an author,." Elsa picked up her cup of soda and took a sip to give her statement a second to sink in. Then said, "Janine, don't look at your best friend as an enemy. Look at them as the best damn chance we have of destroying that gang once and for all."

"I can neither confirm nor deny if I have an informant," Cronan said carefully. "I can't risk putting anyone in danger."

"Then it's settled. For now, let's drop this and focus on the important things. I'm alive. Anna is alive. We're all alive." Elsa drank a little more of her soda then looked directly at Anna. "Anything you would like to add?"

"Cronan, do you play video games?" Anna asked. "You're wearing a very peculiar shirt if you don't."

Cronan looked down at their shirt as though it was the first time all day they had noticed it. "It's Dragon Age," they said. "I got it from the Bioware site. The sword in the right hand. I've not actually gotten too far in any of the games, so I've no idea what it means in them, but in real life, the sword in the right hand is a metaphor for punishment. as Justice has in her right hand a sword facing down that symbolizes the punishments for crimes. and the eye with the sun represents the all seeing eye, being ever vigilant for corruption and wrongdoings. I think the group in Dragon Age calls themselves the seers of truth or something like that." .

Anna smiled and chuckled. "So there is something you don't know everything about!"

Cronan laughed. "Yeah, there's actually a lot I don't really know much about. You'd think that as an author without a day job I'd have a lot of free time to play video games. You'd be right if I didn't prefer most days just getting out of the house and wandering around. There's always something cool in the city." be right if I didn't prefer most days just getting out of the house and wandering around. There's always something cool in the city."

"You've lived here how long?" Anna asked.

"Only about seven years," Cronan replied as they tore a little piece of their sub off and fed it to Finch.

"That's pretty long," Anna said.

"Not really," Cronan said with a shrug. "I spent the previous 12 years living in a small town just a few -" they paused at the look on Janine's face. "Okay like 33 miles,, north."

"She once rode her bike that whole way, you know," Janine said as she drank some of her own drink. "It took her almost 11 and a half hours. It was like 95 degrees."

"I apologized for that. I was 19 and stupid, what was I supposed to do? Stay home and not see my friends?"

"You're the one who opted to take that year long break," Janine pointed out. "I get that you had good reason to do that, what with... you never really explained it, but I know your reason was sound.'

Cronan sighed but nodded. "Before that small town I lived in a city just a wee bit bigger or maybe smaller, I can't really remember it very well."

Anna nodded. "That's pretty interesting. Okay, different thing now. Do we still have to go to school tomorrow or will we be excused?"

"That's not up to me," Janine said. "But if Elsa isn't released before 10 pm, I will make the request that she be excused tomorrow."

"What about me?" Anna asked.

"I'll make a case for you as well considering the events of the weekend, but it might not go over as well." Janine put her id back in her pocket and then sighed. "You can't avoid school for very long Anna. You already missed Friday. The administration elected ex post facto to change that absence to an excused one for 'forces beyond your control' and likely would do the same for tomorrow, if a doctor or mental health professional sent in a note saying that you need the day off for your health."

Anna nodded. There was no reason in her mind that anyone would tell the school she shouldn't go back tomorrow, so she resigned herself to the fact that she would have to go back without Elsa. "Do you think I'd at least be excused from PE due to my stitches?"

"Absolutely," Janine said. "Pe is rough. The school can't risk letting a student participate with a cast, or with as many stitches as you have right now. If one of them broke, it would be a disaster."

"That is true," Anna said. "What will the stitches do to my violin playing? I haven't touched my violin since Thursday. I'm worried that the ones on my arm will interfere with how well I can hold the instrument."

Janine started to respond then stopped. "I actually have no idea, I've never come across that problem before."

"As long as they're not on a bendy bit I don't really see why you shouldn't be able to," Cronan said. "But I'm not a doctor, I'm a writer."

"You could ask one of the nurses or doctors the next time they come by," Elsa said. "Where is my mom? This is weird, she should be here by now. Not dad though, he has an important thing to do. I heard him talking about it when I got up to get water yesterday, when we were sleeping. Something about a surprise for someone."

Anna looked toward the door. "I don't know. It's all very strange, no one would tell me where they really went last night either. They only said that everyone else was either talking to the police or sleeping. It didn't make sense. They shouldn't have still been talking to the police at like three in the morning."

"Unless they were setting up some kind of watch," Cronan said. "They came back once, it stands to reason they would try again. The police probably know moving you to another house in town would solve nothing."

"Then why not move us out of town?" Elsa asked. "A safe house?"

"Can't. If they did your parents would most likely lose all hope of being able to become Anna's legal guardians," Cronan said. "They would consider it an unsafe situation to put her into and refuse to do so."

"So the choices are keep me and Anna in reach of the Firenze or risk Anna not being allowed to live with me anymore?" Elsa asked. "There's got to be some other way."

"Janine, what if I came to live with you and my brother?" Anna asked. "Reggie is my brother after all. He's legally the next best person to gain custody of my now that the truth about my mom can be brought to light."

Janine thought about that. It wasn't a stretch to believe that the courts would agree with Anna about Reggie being the next in line to gain custody. "That's not up to me," Janine said. "I don't want to separate you and Elsa, in any way if I can help it. I'd love to have you in my house, in my family. But I want you safe more than I want that. I've been your orchestra teacher for over two years. I'm not sure how well either of us could make the change from just teacher and student to parent and child."

"But you wouldn't be my parent," Anna said. "You'd be my sister-in-law."

"That doesn't really help the situation Anna," Janine said. "I'm 12 years older than you."

"Then why would you being my parent make any more sense than just being my sister-in-law. Honestly?" Anna said. "People would ask more questions about a 12 year age difference in a parent and child than in someone and their spouse's sibling."

"I'm sure people would ask questions either way," Janine said.

"Of course they will," Anna said. "No matter what happens, people are going to be asking questions. If Elsa's parents' become my guardians it'll be things like, 'Why are you still dating her? She's practically your sister.' 'Isn't it jumping the boat a little to be living with your girlfriend this early?' 'Didn't you learn anything?' 'You're only in this situation because you're gay, you know that right?' It's not like other people would give a damn that Elsa and I have feelings even if Elsa can control hers and I can't even tell half the time if I'm sad or hungry. Living with the two of you wouldn't be any different. 'Isn't it weird that your teacher is pretty much your mom now?' 'It's so weird that your teacher got engaged to your brother without you even knowing that she knew your brother?' 'That's just one more notch in your freak family stick, isn't it?' Trust me, I'm well aware that people will be asking questions no matter what happens."

Janine tried to think of something to say in response to that, but nothing seemed quite like the correct thing.

"Enough, Anna please," Elsa said quietly. "Please. Don't talk like that. I...I want you to stay with me. Please, I know it's selfish of me, but I already lost you once, twice. Please don't make me lose you again." She wasn't looking at anyone. She didn't want them to see the sadness that she felt when she thought about what Anna was trying to do. Trying to talk herself and everyone else into. "I know you want to protect me but living with someone else isn't the way to do that."

Anna stopped herself from adding on to her statement and looked at Elsa. She leaned over and gently placed a small kiss on Elsa's left cheek. "I'm not going anywhere, Elsa. I promise. Not without you."

Elsa nodded whispered, "You mean it?"

Anna nodded. "Of course I mean it."

There was a moment of silence between them all before Finch decided he needed to go outside and Cronan stood up. "It's about time for me to go," they said. "I have to meet my sister about a book and that means I need to take Finch home."

"Promise you'll visit me sometime again?" Elsa asked. "We can play some video game or other together."

"No problem," Cronan said as they were gathering up their things. "I'd like to have the pleasure of calling you two my friends."

"I'd like that," Elsa said. Anna nodded in agreement.

Janine smiled. "We'll see you two later, I have to go if I'm going to talk to administration in time for anything I say to affect tomorrow."

Elsa and Anna nodded then watched as Cronan, Finch, and Janine left the room.

"Anna," Elsa said quietly when they were gone. "I don't think Janine and Reggie should be your legal guardians."

"Why not?" Anna asked. "I mean, I kind of agree but why do you think that?"

"We don't know what you're brother does," Elsa said, "where he works. Just that he's busy a lot. I'm willing to bet he probably has some kind of either government job or contract work. I'm not quite sure what I mean by that but it makes sense. And Janine doesn't really seem like she's used to interacting with people our age outside of academic setting. I'm sure they would both be great parents if they got to raise a child from infancy, but they're not much older than us. Reggie's only 23 after all, and Janine 27. They can't really be expected to take over raising you from where you are now, they don't have the skills. They don't have the resources. They don't have the knowledge. But my mom and dad they do. You're only three years younger than me. My parent's would know what to do."

"I know that," Anna said gently. "But what could we possibly do about the people who would have something to say. What would we do about the ones who would want to keep us apart because we'd practically be sisters? What would we do?"

"We kick them," Elsa said. "We've done it before back when people insisted that we were 'like sisters' and that 'they couldn't possibly be anything more than friends'. We kick them. We make them see that nothing has changed between us just because you live with me. What do we do to bullies?"

"We kick them," Anna said happily. It amazed her that as much as Elsa hated conflict Elsa still remembered when 'kick them' was the only advice that she could give about people being bullies. Of course it was advice that had never really worked out very well but it did give them both confidence just saying it. She was much more fond of punching people who tried to bully her now, not that she'd ever tell Elsa that.

For just a second they forgot how serious the situation they were in was. That second was all it took for them to start feeling somewhat normal again.


	24. Chapter 24

"What time is it?" Elsa asked when Anna had finally finished eating.

"It's like 3, why?" Anna replied. It was unusual for Elsa to be so worried about time unless... "You still haven't taken your meds for today, have you?"

Elsa shook her head. "No I haven't. It's so weird. I'm scared. My mom should have been here by now."

"I am," Adrianna said from the door. "Sorry I'm late, there was a mix-up at the vet and they thought Karson wasn't supposed to be in until Wednesday. That's all sorted out though."

Elsa smiled. "Mom, do you have my meds?" It wasn't exactly the first thing on her mind, but it was the more important one.

"I do," Adrianna said walking over and sitting her purse on the edge of the bed. She dug through it and handed Elsa the pill bottle. "I also have your meds, Anna. If you want them."

"I'm good for now, thanks though," Anna said with a small smile.

"You look a little worried, is everything alright?" Adrianna asked while Elsa was taking her medicine and jotting down the time on the little notepad beside the bed. Elsa didn't know but it was the same notepad that had been in her pocket before she was brought to the hospital.

"I feel like something really bad is going to happen," Anna said. "I don't know what. I get this feeling a lot actually, the books at the library say it's a symptom of anxiety or depression or something. I don't know."

Elsa looked over to her for a moment then looked at clock on the wall. "Maybe what you need Anna, is a distraction. Mom, when is Dad going to get here? I need him to bring my laptop with him so Anna can play games."

"What, Elsa no. I don't want to play games," Anna tried to protest.

"I laced the biggest mountain in my minecraft world with about 4 tons of TNT. You can do the honors of blowing it up," Elsa said with a smile.

"Well, in that case," Anna said with a chuckle. "I'm in."

"He should be here in about an hour, I'll send him a text telling him to bring your phone and your laptop," Adrianna said with a smile. "Oh by the way, you do still like Nintendo games, right? You were so sad a few months ago about your DS."

"What does my DS have to do with anything?" Elsa asked. "I mean, yes I still love Nintendo, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Oh nothing," Adrianna said with a smile. "I just thought I'd ask since you mentioned Anna playing games on your laptop, I was thinking I might get us a Wii U now that Anna's finally decided to come live with us. Something we could all do as a family, I mean, even your dad knows how to play Mario Kart."

"Mom, I think you forget that he's the one who taught me how to play games on consoles," Elsa said.

"And who taught you to play on the computer?" Adrianna asked.

"Well that was you," Elsa said. "But that doesn't necessarily mean that either of you know more about video games than the other."

"Well, you're not wrong. Since neither of us know much about Minecraft and I can't for the life of me understand the appeal of war games, while your dad doesn't really take to rpgs, I think you're right," Adrianna said.

"I know I'm right," Elsa said. Then smiled slightly. "I'm just really glad you're here."

Adrianna nodded with a smile. She closed up her purse and moved it to the window. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

Anna smiled too and moved from the edge of the bed to sitting in the window so that Adrianna could sit beside Elsa. Adrianna smiled at Anna and then sat down beside Elsa.

Elsa smiled and took Adrianna's hand with a yawn. "I think I'll take a nap."

Adrianna smiled. "I understand. Sleep well little one." She leaned over and kissed Elsa's forehead as Elsa moved to lie back down.

Once Elsa fell asleep there wasn't much talking, not even when Lukas arrived with her phone and laptop, nor when he placed a neatly wrapped box in the window. Not even when dinner time rolled around. It was unusual for them not to talk, but none of them wanted to wake up Elsa. Adrianna had fixed the little sleeper chair back into a chair around 4 pm and around 9 pm she and Anna fell asleep in the chair while waiting to hear from the doctor about if Elsa would be going home or not.

Lukas had come and gone from the room many times, always a restless soul. Someone needed to make sure Karson and Tesla were okay at home though and with Adrianna asleep that fell to Lukas. He finally returned to stay the night with his family around 11 pm.

Four hours later, after a rather loud crash of thunder outside, Elsa finally awoke to see a small figure standing in her door.

"Cronan?" She asked as she pulled herself up a little to see better.

The little figure nodded and walked into the room very slowly.

"Cronan, are you okay? What's wrong? What's happened?" Elsa asked.

Adrianna had woken up with the same crash of thunder that had awoken Elsa. She'd never met Cronan before but even she could tell something was wrong.

"Janine's dead." Those were the only words Cronan could manage to say.


	25. Chapter 25

Elsa didn't think it was possible that anything could cause her as much emotional pain as the thought earlier that she might have died without ever getting to tell anyone good-bye, but she thought wrong. She just couldn't believe that it could be true. Janine couldn't just be dead. She couldn't.

"What happened?" Elsa asked, forcing herself to sit all the way up. "Cronan, please tell me what happened."

Cronan nodded as they walked over and then leaned against Elsa heavily. They hadn't felt a sense of loss this great since their grandfather had died over 12 years earlier. "There was a car accident. She was going to get groceries, like she does every Sunday. A truck ran a redlight and t-boned her." Cronan was crying as they talked. They took a deep breath to try and steady themself but started when they felt another hand on their back that wasn't Elsa's.

"The nurses thought it might make us feel better," Reggie said, nodding to the nurse who had led him up to Elsa's room, "If we were with family."

"They told us that she died instantly. Didn't feel any pain, or so they think," Cronan said. Somehow it wasn't as comforting being up here with everyone else as they had thought it might be. Maybe it was because everyone was asleep, or maybe it was because Elsa wasn't saying anything.

"Cronan," Elsa said quietly. "As helpful as I wish I could be right now, I think you need to rely on Reggie or one of my parents more than me in this situation. I just really think that would be better. It's not that I'm not upset over this." No, she was definitely hurting, she was just good at working through it. "I just think you need someone a little older, a little more used to this. Someone who was actually close to her."

Cronan looked up at Elsa for a moment. They could see that she was trying not to let herself cry. For a moment they even thought that they could see her starting to work through it emotionally already. That made them realize that Elsa paid a lot more attention to what the therapists say than what they did. Elsa was right. "I don't really know why I came up here. I guess, I just don't want to bother my family at three in the morning," Cronan said quietly. "I just can't believe she's gone."

"She's only gone physically," Elsa said. "And as long as you remember her-"

"And love her," Reggie added.

"She'll only ever be gone physically. She'll always be with you in spirit. Part of her lives in you. We are all part of the same great circle of life."

Cronan almost told her not to quote Lion King to them but something about what she said just made her feel a lot better.

Cronan and Reggie left together about an hour later, Reggie promising to make sure that Cronan got to her family safely. When they were gone, Elsa turned to her mom and said simply, "Anna is going to get mad when she finds out, I can almost guarantee that. Anna always gets mad when she didn't get to say a proper goodbye to someone she'll never see again."

Adrianna nodded and looked to see if either Anna or Lukas had woken up, but they were sound asleep. "Go back to sleep Elsa. It'll be alright in the end."

Elsa smiled and laid back down.

Monday came with a 6 am automated call from the principal of the high school alerting parents to loss of "a valued faculty member". It came with a 7 am call, not automated, for Adrianna.

"Mrs. Arendelle," the principal said on the other end of the call.

"Yes?" Adrianna said.

"Firstly, I'd like to say how sorry I am about what happened to your daughter, and to Anna. Secondly, I'd like you to know that Ms. Neprud made a strong case for both Elsa and Anna to be excused from school. Elsa is excused, given the circumstances, until 2 days after she gets out of the hospital. The day she gets out and the day after, excused. That second day that she's out, not excused. As for Anna, she's excused for today and tomorrow. I'll be meeting with the attendance board tomorrow to decide how long she's good to be excused for."

"How will I find out the decision from that?" Adrianna asked. She was talking in hushed tones because Elsa and Anna were both still asleep.

"I'll call you," the principal said.

"Is that all you wanted?" Adrianna asked trying not to sound rude, she was still tired.

"No, I want to request that you keep Anna close. Don't let her come near the school, until at least Wednesday."

"Can I ask why?"

"Anna's got a history of fighting people over things that get said about Elsa. Given the circumstances, the fact that Elsa and Anna were the last two students to see Ms. Neprud alive, there'll be talk, hearsay and rumors. A lot of it. We're going to do our best to put a stop to them, but there's isn't a lot we actually can do. It's best to keep Anna away, especially given that not only is there a great personal feeling in this, as most students loved Ms. Neprud, there's also a political end to it concerning the governor's speech and Anna's role in it. It's just safer to keep her away until we've got a handle on the situation here."

"I understand," Adrianna said. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but if there's nothing else, I'd like to end the call. I didn't get much sleep last night, and I'd like to try to get some more before the girls wake up."

"No problem, if anything else pertinent comes up, I'll make note of it and call you when I have time, Thank you for hearing me out."

"Thank you for actually calling and letting us know the situation."

The call ended with that and Adrianna settled back to get more sleep.


End file.
